WeChat (Weixin in China) is looking for new ways to expand its lead over other messaging apps in the region with the launch of a new advertising platform.
The system is still in open beta and only open to official accounts with more than 100,000 followers, and the reasoning for this appears to be so WeChat can get feedback about the service and make improvements before a wider launch. Ads will show up as text links at the bottom of each official account page that users then click on to read more.
Ads will show up as text links at the bottom of each official account page
According to WeChat, official account owners can target these ads based on a number of criteria, including age, gender, and region. A handy dashboard for monitoring the performance of ads is also present, which will give official account owners details of their ads’ performance and allow them to make adjustments accordingly.
The platform is seen as a way to entice more users to the growing messaging platform, as WeChat continues to work on adding features and content to the service. A little over a week ago, we also discovered that 58.com’s Craigslist-like service will be coming to the WeChat platform, which is currently available for most popular devices.