What are original content accounts?
Original Content accounts are WeChat public accounts for which the content is verified by Tencent as being unique and not infringing on other accounts copyright. Once a message is approved as Original Content, you can see a special tag appearing on top of the message:
The original content tag was previously restricted to articles, but it is soon to extend to images, music and videos.
What special rights get Original Content accounts?
1. Comments section
Original Content accounts can include comment section which enable readers to intereact, and provides an additional incentive to follow the account (as only followers can comment)
2. “Tip” the account
Original Content personal accounts (created by individuals and not by companies) can access (on an invitation-only basis) to a “Tip” function enabling readers to donate money to the account.
3. Enable “re-share”
We described in a previous article that Original Content accounts can authorize other accounts to re-share their content. The content will be automatically detected as belonging to the Original Content account, and WeChat will automatically add a link to the account at the bottom of the article. A great way to gain additional followers and exposure with no effort.
What new abilities will Original Account accounts get in the future?
This is already an impressive line-up of extra features. But things are going to get even better for Original Content accounts with a new set of features announced just last week (but yet to be released).
1. “Quick-follow” button
Users will be able to follow the account with the simple click of a button
2. Pay to follow
A game-changing feature: accounts will be able to ask for a monthly subscription fee for users to see some of their premium content. Whether or not this feature will get traction among Chinese users is a major question.
But if this feature works out, it might bring the freemium model for medias to a whole new level, and once again set WeChat as a global business-model innovator.
3. Increase ads revenues
Original Content accounts which display ads will get a higher percentage of the money spent by advertisers (we had described in a previous article how little revenue ads-displayers were getting previously)
How to get original content ability
As of today, there is no way to formally apply for Original Content accounts. The special ability is given on an invitation-only base by Tencent.
This feature is also restricted to subscription accounts.
There are however a set of criteria you are supposed to meet in order to be eligible for an invitation:
- Duration for which your account existed: your account should have been created for at least several months
- Activity level: your account should have been active and frequently posting articles
- Quantity of original content: you must be creating a sufficient amount of original content and it should represent a large percentage of the messages you are posting
- Record of Terms of Use infringement: if you have ever infringed on Tencent terms of use, you are unlikely to be able to enter this scheme
Once invited by Tencent to join the scheme, you will see a new option to apply for Original Content each time you create a new message:
Are subscription accounts Tencent’s new favorite?
With the ever-increasing amount of content being published on WeChat, and while previously giving many extra features to service accounts (visiblity, payments, geo-localisation, voice-recognition, etc…) it is clear that Tencent is now trying to shift the balance back toward subscription accounts.
The reason behind it is simple: WeChat is very eager to protect its users, and service accounts are incredibily invasive to users (as they appear as friends). It is important for WeChat that people keep paying attention to subscription accounts and that accounts are incentivized to keep creating great content.
These features, at the end of the day, all go in the direction of creating a healthier content ecosystem on WeChat, beneficial to authors while protecting users from spam.