Applying For An Official WeChat Account As A Chinese Registered Business

First, thanks for the e-mail response to our WeChat for business series. We’re always happy here at Eggplant Digital to respond to your queries, so don’t be shy!! Our resident WeChat geek is ready and waiting to answer your questions…

Just to be clear this article is only for those of you who are interested knowing about applying for an official WeChat account as a Chinese registered business. This means that you must have PRC paperwork for your company to do official in business in China- if not please head over to our previous article for those who want to know about registering an official WeChat account as a non-Chinese business.

The first thing to be clear about is that the entire process for registration is only in Chinese.

You Will Need:

• Chinese ID (身份证 )
• Chinese mobile phone number (手机号码)
• Chinese Business License (营业执照)
• Chinese Organization Code (组织机构代码证)

The Process
Go to the registration page and register. It’s the usual username / password / e-mail / CAPTCHA terms of service form that we all know well.
Note: The link to verify your e-mail address expires after 48 hours ( just in case you get distracted!)

Select Account Type
Once you have verified your e-mail address you should select which kind of official account you want to register.
You now have three choices:

• Service Account (服务号)
• Subscription Account (订阅号)
• Enterprise Account (企业号)

The criteria for subscription and service accounts are included in our previous article.
Unless you are a media company, a verified Service Account is almost always the right choice.
The quick answer is that for most types of business a verified service account is what you are looking for, unless your company is in the media industry.

Enterprise Accounts
Enterprise accounts are for internal use and are accessible to employees with an e-mail address from that specific company- so not really so useful for most purposes.
Only verified Service Accounts and Enterprise Accounts have access to advanced features and developer tools. Choose carefully!

The only accounts that have full access to developer tools and all the advanced features are enterprise accounts and verified service accounts, so bear that in mind when you are making your choice.

Dealing With Your Account Details
As you might expect this is a fairly long form, especially for companies.
It’s a good idea to prepare all your details in advance for this form, as the page timed-out the first time we tried. This could prove tedious..
You can submit images in the following formats:

• .jpg, .jpeg, .bmp .gif
• Images cannot exceed 2MB. You can download the WeChat Application Form here.
• You will need:
• A Chinese business license
• Photo holding Chinese ID ( no image editing + visible ID card)
• WeChat application form ( completed + company chopped + scanned

Link To An Employee
Now you need to link the account to a company members WeChat ID. Up to 2 official accounts can be linked to one individual ID.

The last part of the form requires you to upload a scanned image of a completed, signed, and chopped WeChat Application Form (授权运营书). Fill in the relevant information noted in red below. You can download WeChat’s application form here.

Finally you need to upload a copy of a completed WeChat application form ( signed and company chopped). Download from here.

Appearance And Description
Now you just need to enter your account name and description. Your account name can be changed at t alter date. Please not that your introduction can be changed once a month.

Job Done!
WeChat commit to the account going live in 7 days, and our reports say the same .

Finally…
If you haven’t signed up for a regular WeChat account, we highly recommend it. It’s actually a really effective communication app, and as previously mentioned, the features are great compared with it’s competitors.

If you want to know how to use WeChat For Business check out our earlier article.

Happy Chatting!