WeChat is reinventing ecommerce – and America is playing catch-up

“If you can get ahold of Facebook’s product roadmap, it’s a giant WeChat clone,” says William Bao Bean. “China is behind in a lot of different areas, but one area where it’s ahead is in social content-driven commerce.”

As managing director of Chinaccelerator, one of the country’s most prestigious startup accelerators, it’s William’s job to spot trends that can be exploited by budding new companies. One of the most important of those trends has been the rise of WeChat – not just as a messaging app, but as a place where people shop online.

Starting from last year, Tencent, WeChat’s parent company, began a serious push to open up its platform for developers to build ecommerce stores and a wide range of online services.

Instead of building standalone apps, some developers now build their services within WeChat. All of the chat app’s features are at their fingertips – WeChat’s wallet allows users to seamlessly make in-app purchases; its social networking allows users to influence each other’s purchasing decisions; companies can see precisely how much people are talking about their product, and which people within a community have the most influence.

Moving closer – and further – from Silicon Valley

“In China – in the past, at least – it didn’t generally matter how great your product was,” says WIlliam. “What mattered was who your friends are and how much money you raised.”

Traditionally, a tremendous amount of startup investment in China has gone directly to user acquisition: advertising, promotions, and the like. But with WeChat-based services, it’s more important – and cheaper – to focus on content with hopes of it going viral on the network.

“It’s a big change. With WeChat, you can do a traditional US-style internet company in China,” says William, noting that many American companies focus on making shareable content, rather than simply pushing out expensive ads. “For the first time, good content and a great product have a chance.”

But while the potential for virality may be similar to US-style companies, there is one big difference that sets WeChat apart from its international competition: the “buy” button.

While it’s possible for a Western startup to go viral on Facebook, that’s only part of the equation. Users still need to be brought from Facebook to a separate website or app where they must be persuaded to turn that viral excitement into a purchase.

See also: How I started a profitable side business by selling on WeChat

In WeChat, everything’s in one place. So it’s simply a matter of building a community – around your product or viral content – and then “everything that you see in that community you can click and buy,” says William.

Take, for example, Better Man. The Chinaccelerator graduate startup that William describes as “FHM, plus men’s fitness, plus Maxim, plus Vice,” engages in typical brand sponsorships and advertising, but also gives viewers the ability to buy anything on the screen, from clothes, to weights, to speaker systems.

Today China, tomorrow the world