Research presentation on WeChat Subscription Product

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To: Victoria Wu Director of Operations and BD, WeChat U.S.A

Presenter: Pawan Gupta, MIT Sloan MBA Student Date: 4/29/2014

+Look into this product

+Problem ?

1.  Is there anything you can think of to improve the product?

2.  How would you promote WeChat Subscription for events and conferences at institutions such as MIT, Harvard etc.?

+Preliminary Conclusions for

Problem 1

Recommendations for improving attendees experience:

Active promotions from the organizers are needed to reach to prospective attendees and engage them more before and during the conference

Users are not seeing clear value of the product. A substantial value in product needs to be defined for attendees

There are plenty of opportunities to innovate and engage the audiences more such as engagement of audiences to the speakers, new methods of conference updates to the prospective audience

It is recommended to quickly tap into the opportunity and expand to multiple conferences There are opportunities as well as

challenges. Once these things are fixed, WeChat could have a unique and clear

value proposition to attendees

+Preliminary Conclusions for

Problem 1 (contd..)

Recommendations for reaching Conference Organizers:

The promotions to ticket sales ratio (15% from social media) from CBS China Conference can go a long way in convincing other conference organizers to try the product, and thus acquire more users

Publishing QR Code of Conferences on WeChat account can be a good plan forward

Spamming from users seems not be an issue from CBS organizers but keeping a watch on other organizers would be important

BOOM ! The satisfaction of CBS organizers is a huge success, but it is important to keep the flow going for

competitive advantage

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How and Why ??

+Approach followed

n  Talked to mentors to plan how to solve the problem: n  Rishi Khaitan: Former Googler, Sloan alum and Product expert on building step

by step process n  Recalled my talk with Tamara Mendelsohn, VP of Marketing, Eventbrite on their

focus areas: They are not very much focused on mobile as a top priority for next 1-2 years

n  Attended CBS China Business Conference on April 25 to understand WeChat CBS China Conference subscription product

n  Interviewed users (3)

n  Interviewed non-users (7)

n  Interviewed organizers (2)

n  Interviewed focused groups (1)

n  Defined preliminary insights on the product, and promotional strategies to promote the product in educational institutions

+Approach followed

Questions for organizers:

1.  Will you use WeChat CBS subscription again? If yes, then why?

2.  Did you like or dislike any feature?

3.  How did you promote the event?

4.  How would you promote the event in future?

5.  How many prospective attendees or ticket buyers you interacted with?

6.  What were the main questions that people asked?

7.  Any feedback for the product?

+Approach followed

Questions for attendees:

1.  Do you know about WeChat CBS subscription?

2.  Did you like or dislike any feature?

3.  What are your expectations from the conference?

4.  Will you use WeChat CBS subscription again? If yes, then why?

5.  Any feedback for the product?

+Background of Interviews

n Total interviews taken: 12-14

n Some attendees didn’t agree for capturing their picture of video. Some preferred to be anonymous while there was a case that asked for money.

+Recorded Video Interviews

Case Study 1: Non-user

Interviewee: Computer Science Student, Columbia University

Concerns:

n  This is the first time I have seen this subscription

n  I want to limit the number of subscriptions under WeChat App

n  After the conference, I no longer need CBS subscription product. This is the reason I didn’t subscribe to it

n  I get information from website, so I don’t need this app

Active promotions needed

Clear value proposition of WeChat needs to be

defined



Interviewee: Computer Science Student, Columbia University

Possibilities:

n  But when you show me this subscription, I noticed it is very unique from others

n  You can raise questions, talk to them (organizers). It’s like a real person who is running this

n  Other subscription are just announcements but this is cool. May be in next conference, I will consider downloading this

Unique feature for competitive advantage



Interviewee: Anonymous

Concerns:

n  I have never heard of CBS official account before

n  Question: The QR code was mentioned in the site. Why you haven’t heard of it?

n  Answer: With hesitation, May be just I haven’t heard of it

Active promotions needed for attendees



Interviewee: Anonymous

Possibilities:

After my friend introduced it to me, it is quite helpful and practical to me because I can choose update information from conference

The feature is helpful. Time to tap on opportunity and quickly expand to other

conferences


Case Study 3: Focused groups non-users

Interviewees: NYU Students

Concerns:

I’ve never used this app

This is a 1-day event, so didn’t subscribe to this account

Value proposition of CBS Conference

subscription not clearly defined to the user

Product needs more promotional

effects

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Interviewees: NYU Students

Recorded Video Interviews Case Study 3: Focused groups non-users

Possibilities:

It would be great opportunity for students and attendees to associate with the speakers

I want to be involved with speakers, that is the reason I came for this conference

Hint for new product feature

+Recorded Video Interviews Case Study 4: User and Organizer

Interviewee: Jiayi Hao, Co-Chair of Conference

Concerns:

In terms of users, whether it was annoying or spamming, that is difficult to say. As an organizer, we feel there was a natural interest in the conference

Overall, there were not much concerns from his side

This can be very tough to do, but WeChat did an

exceedingly good job in satisfying the organizers

+Recorded Video Interviews Case Study 4: User and Organizer

Interviewee: Jiayi Hao, Co-Chair of Conference

Possibilities:

WeChat has exploded in terms of usage and influence: It’s incredible how much it has grown in one year. Last year not many people were using it

We have around mid 600’s in ticket sales. It’s very hard to guess, but I were to guess, 15% of ticket sales may be from social media

Network effects

Now, WeChat has a number (promotions to ticket sales ratio) to

convince other conference organizers

+Anonymous Quotes from

Attendees

"I would have used this had I heard this before”

More promotions are needed to actively reach

out to attendees

+Anonymous Quotes from

Attendees

I already know the panel from website so I didn't download the subscription

My department sent me details on the event, so I don't require the WeChat subscription

Although I have now seen you telling me about this product, but I can't give feedback. I have not used it. Please do not insist me again and again"

People are not seeing clear value of the product. WeChat needs to find out potential features that can serve the needs of users.

Educating the users should be done

+Quotes from Organizers

It was hard to publish the WeChat CBS account. It was resolved last night

We did not promote WeChat CBS subscription actively because we were unsure of users who registered WeChat in China would be able to access the account. It could be 5% or more, but I am not sure of numbers

For promotions in future, we can publish the QR code on WeChat account as well

Q: Will you use WeChat CBS again? Yes, Definitely, will use WeChat again

We had around 100 followers on WeChat, and the questions were not that many. The audience could see the updates.

- Angelo Wang, Technology team, CBS China Conference

It is a big news ! There is a lot of potential in the product

Recommendation on product feature

Seems, this is fixed now. Good

for product

+Quotes from Organizers

"We didn't get spammed from users. I think, as an organizer, it is important to respond to users”

- Jiayi Hao, Co-Chair, CBS China Business Conference

This is a great news but different conference

organizers can have different viewpoints. They may not

like to be spammed

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On Problem 2 ( Promotion of Product)

What’s happening at MIT?

+Action Plans

n  Step 1 (Administration support): Career Development Office at MIT Sloan

n  Step 2 (Administration support): Student Life Office that heads student clubs at MIT Sloan

n  Step 3 (Clubs support): One to one conversations with club Presidents/ Event organizers of Asian Clubs

n  Step 4 (Collection of data): Survey data collection from Club presidents and addressing their concerns

n  Step 5 (Testing): Prototyping with events in coming semesters, and quickly evolving the product

n  Step 6 (Deploying): Taking it from prototyping to fully deploying the product for conferences, experimenting with other student activities and reaching out to wider MIT community/schools

ON

GO

ING

U

PCO

MIN

G

+Action Plans

n  Step 1 (Administration support and updates from meetings with Career Development Office at MIT Sloan):

No Content (Content removed due to confidentiality)

ONGOING

+Action Plans

n  Step 2 (Administration support and updates from meetings with Student Life Office at MIT Sloan):

No Content (Content removed due to confidentiality)

ONGOING

+Action Plans

n  Step 3 (Clubs support): : More one-to-one interactions with Club Co-Presidents for Asia Business Club, South-East Asian Society, Greater China Club, South Asia Business Club, Tech Club, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club: All are very good friends

Tracie Chen, Co-President for Greater China Club. She is working with me on Snapchat academic work

N a k u l J a m a d a g n i , C o -President for Tech Club. He is a close friend as belong to same country India

ONGOING

+ Key Questions from MIT Sloan Tech Club

Interview with Nakul Jamadagni, Co-President for MIT Sloan Tech Club

Concerns raised:

1.  What is the exact value proposition of the product?

2.  Will we reach the right audience through this product?

3.  As an organizer, I don’t want to be spammed by attendees or prospective ticket buyers?

4.  Do you have data on promotion on WeChat to ticket sales ratio?

5.  Is WeChat open for sponsoring?

Very good questions to give competitive advantage to WeChat and entry to MIT

ecosystem

ONGOING

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Interview with Nakul Jamadagni, Co-President for MIT Sloan Tech Club

Possibilities:

If you can address these questions, I will be able to try WeChat to our events

This is a great help, as your club being one of the most active clubs at

Sloan

ONGOING Key Questions from

MIT Sloan Tech Club

+Action Plans

From left: Min Baek, Keiichi Onishi, Sherry Sirikunakorn: Co-Presidents for Asian Business Club. Keiichi and I studied together at same cohort (small size group), while Min and Sherry have been very good friends. Sherry is also a Club leader at South-East Asian Society

ONGOING

Step 3 (Clubs support): contd..

+Action Plans


From Left: Atul Garg, and Suyog Shukla (Vice-Presidents for South Asia Business Club): They are very close friends from India

From Left: Raghav Goel, and Siddhartha Pandey (Co-Chairs for MIT India

Conference): They are very close friends from India

ONGOING

+Action Plans


From Left: Meltem Demirors, Vanessa Mary Anderson, and Pawan Gupta (Co-Presidents for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club). We are one of the biggest and most influential clubs on campus, and currently host maximum number of events at Sloan

ONGOING

+Action Plans

n  Step 4 (Collection of data): Survey Data Collection from Club Presidents across different MIT clubs

n  Draft put up for your advice: Please click here to access the link

* Survey Link removed due to confidentiality

UPCOMING

+Action Plans

n  Step 5 (Testing): Prototyping with multiple smaller events and conferences

UPCOMING

+Action Plans

n  Step 6 (Deploying): Reaching out to Association of Student Activities at MIT, and wider MIT community (with more engagements)

This is where it gets to wider MIT community across undergraduate and graduate schools

UPCOMING

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How about making WeChat to be the part of everybody’s life at MIT?

UPCOMING

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And the possibilities are endless provided we take the challenge fiercely

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Thank you Victoria Wu and WeChat team for trusting me

Research presentation on WeChat Subscription Product

Technology

Transcript of Research presentation on WeChat Subscription Product