WeCom (企业微信, formerly WeChat Work) is Tencent’s workplace platform for internal communication and customer relationships. Employees chat, meet and approve requests in one app, and they can add customers who use ordinary WeChat. Foreign companies can register and verify an account, and connect it to their CRM or internal tools.
What WeCom does
WeCom brings together the tools a team uses every day and a direct line to customers on WeChat.
Communication
- Instant messaging: one-on-one and group chats with file transfer, synchronized in the cloud across phone, desktop and browser.
- Meetings: video conferences with screen sharing, connected to Tencent Meeting.
- Live streaming: companies can broadcast internal training or product launches, with comments from viewers.
Collaboration and office tools
- Online documents: several people edit documents, spreadsheets and slides at the same time, with version history, through Tencent Docs.
- Calendar: employees see colleagues’ availability and send meeting invitations.
- Approvals: customizable templates for leave, expense claims or purchases, with multi-step and parallel approvals.
- Forms: questionnaires and registration forms whose answers are collected into a table.
Customer relationships on WeChat
This is what sets WeCom apart from other workplace apps in China.
- Adding customers: employees add customers on WeChat from their WeCom account and send them business cards, brochures or coupons. The customer does not need to install anything.
- Customer groups: group chats with customers, with automatic welcome messages, anti-spam tools and mass messaging.
- Customer Moments: the company can publish content to the WeChat Moments of its employees’ customers, with a consistent brand message.
- Offboarding handover: when an employee leaves, the company reassigns their customers to a colleague, so the relationship stays with the business.
Security and administration
- Encryption of messages and files, and fine-grained permissions (view, edit, export) set by the administrator.
- Name watermarks on chat screens and operation logs for audits.
- Chat archiving for regulated industries such as finance.
Who uses WeCom
WeCom is used by companies of all sizes in China, from retail chains and schools to clinics and manufacturers. According to its official website, it connects 14 million companies and organizations. Retail and service brands are typical users: their sales staff and advisors keep in touch with customers on WeChat through a company account rather than a personal one.
What a foreign company can do with WeCom
A company registered outside mainland China can create a WeCom account with a non-mainland phone number, then verify it as an overseas enterprise for an annual fee. Our guide to WeCom registration and verification walks through each step, the documents required and the fees.
Once the account is running, WeCom becomes a channel for sales and customer service in China. Through the WeCom developer documentation, a company can connect WeCom to its own systems: customer contacts and chats flow into a CRM, approvals into an ERP, and teams get internal apps inside WeCom. The app marketplace also offers ready-made CRM, ERP and HR tools. When none of them fits your sales process, custom CRM development connected to WeCom keeps every WeChat conversation tied to a customer record. Our article on choosing a CRM in China compares the options.
How WeCom differs from DingTalk and Feishu
DingTalk, from Alibaba, and Feishu, from ByteDance, cover the same office needs: chat, meetings, documents, approvals and attendance. WeCom’s difference is its link with WeChat. A WeCom user can talk to any WeChat user, so the same app serves the team inside and the customers outside. For a company whose customers are on WeChat, that link usually decides the choice.
How QPSoftware can help
Our Shanghai team can help a foreign company set up WeCom and connect it to the systems it already runs. If your sales or service teams talk to customers on WeChat, we can build a CRM that fits China around WeCom, so that every contact, conversation and order is recorded in one place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a foreign company open a WeCom account?
Yes. A company registered outside mainland China can register on the WeCom website with a non-mainland phone number. It can then apply for overseas enterprise verification, which gives the account a verified badge. Verification costs RMB 700, is renewed every year, and is reserved for small companies, according to the WeCom Help Center. The application letter template is in Chinese.
Is WeCom available in English?
Yes. The WeCom app can be switched to English in its settings, and WeCom runs on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and in a web browser. Part of the administration console, the help center and some verification documents remain in Chinese, so a Chinese-speaking colleague or partner is useful during setup and verification.
What is the difference between WeCom and WeChat?
WeChat is a personal messaging app. WeCom is the business version from the same company, Tencent: accounts belong to the company, not to the employee, and the administrator manages members, permissions and customer contacts. WeCom users can chat with WeChat users, and when an employee leaves, the company keeps their customer contacts and reassigns them.