In Asia every country have different social media mobile platforms. India is using Whatsapp, China is all about Wechat, Japan & Thailand more about Line and South Korea is Kakao. These platforms became major marketing sources for Brands and enterprise level business to reach their consumers and customers. Most of the time leading marketing agencies from Europe and USA have very less understand what what these platforms are capable of and the incredible power behind these applications. I tried to gather all these platforms information together. This can be useful to get the basics.

1. 1. WeChat
2. LINE
3. Kakao
4. WhatsApp

2. 1. WeChat
1. Personal Account
2. WeChat Subscription accounts
3. WeChat Service accounts
4. Enterprise accounts
5. WeChat mini-programs
There exist several types of WeChat Official Accounts:

3. 1. WeChat
Using WeChat API, brands’ can push messages to their subscription account
followers and Service account timeline.
Brands’ can also push messages to their followers in the Chat window

4. 1. WeChat
1. Personal Account (Individuals who are following Brands’ Service or
subscription account)
Any individual who download WeChat and Sigup
using his mobile number.
Using WeChat API, Brands’ can send push messages
into Chat window of Individual follower or a group
of followers.
These messages can be text message, images,
Coupons, offers etc.
Personal Account
Push Message to Personal
chat by Service Account
using WeChat API

5. 1. WeChat
2. WeChat Subscription accounts
Messages from Subscription accounts are grouped together in a
dedicated folder appearing alongside your friends in the “chat”
section of WeChat.
Using WeChat API brands' can push 1 message per day to their
followers.
Operated as Business account can push messages to the followers via WeChat
API.

6. 1. WeChat
3. WeChat Service accounts
This type of accounts appear as friends in the “chat”
section of WeChat.
Using WeChat API brands' can push 4 message per
month to their followers. These messages are visible on
the Brands’ timeline.
These messages can be Article post,
images, text messages, membership
cards, coupons, tickets etc.

7. 1. WeChat
4. WeChat Min Programs
They are mostly used for offline applications when user are
only meant to use the APP once.
Mini Programs are shopping site, games, landing pages and
many more.
WeChat provide a very powerful Javascript framework to
develop Mini Programs. They can’t send push notifications
to their followers.

8. 1. WeChat
Cards
The new style WeChat membership cards are stored
under Me>Cards & Passes. Previously it was called
as “Coupons”
Cards can be generated using WeChat API. When
payment is made using
Cards can be Membership cards, tickets, boarding
passes, coupons, identity cards and many more.
Wechat cards can be updated using Wechat API.

9. 2. LINE
1. Personal Account
2. Official Accounts (LINE Partner)
There exist several types of LINE Accounts:

10. 2. LINE
1. Personal Account
Any individual who download LINE and Sigup using his mobile number.
Personal account holders can follow business accounts selecting Brands’ under Official
Accounts
LINE API return the list of Official account (LINE Partner) followers. Only Display name, User ID ,
profile picture URL and status message can be obtained via API.
We have to build our own web hook to capture the userid.
User ID can be only obtained once while a personal user started to following a official account.
Brands must store followers User ID into their database. This User ID will be used to push a
message.
Getting the list of existing followers using LINE API is not clear in the documentation at the
moment. It was available till August 2017 and gone missing after API is migrated to a new
version. We are still exploring the updated API, Posting the questions on LINE FAQ

11. 2. LINE
2. Official AccountsOfficial accounts are business (Brands’) accounts.
Personal accounts holders can follow official accounts
There are two ways these accounts can communicate with their
followers using LINE API.
1. Pushing messages to follower personal chat. This can be Text
with Links, message, Image, Coupons, offers etc.
2. Pushing content to account timeline – LINE do not provide any
API to push the content to the official account timeline.
Brands’ can use the LINE CMS a web application to design and push
message on timelines.
Timeline

12. 2. LINE
1. Reward Cards - Users can collect points or stamps at their favourite stores using the LINE app, and easily
exchange them for rewards.
2. Coupon Book - Coupon Book allows users to manage coupons issued by various companies and stores within the
LINE app
It is not possible to create or update Reward Cards using LINE API. Only way Brands’ can create Reward cards and
Coupons and Events is to use LINE@ Manager application for PC
Reward Cards, Coupon Book, Commerce

13. 3. KAKAO
1. Personal Account
2. Plus Friend Accounts
There are 2 types of KAKAO Accounts:

14. 3. KAKAO
1. Personal Account
Any individual who download KAKAO and Sigup using
mobile number.
KAKAO have REST API. It is not possible to send PUSH
messages to personal account via API.
2. Plus Friend Accounts
Plus Friend accounts are business
(Brands’) accounts

15. 3. KAKAO
2. Plus Friend Accounts
Plus Friend accounts are business (Brands’)
accounts. Personal accounts holders can follow
Plus Friend accounts
There are two ways Business accounts can
communicate with their followers using KAKAO
API.
1. Implement a BOT using KAKAO API.
These bots can reply to the customers
queries with text messages, Images with
Button etc.
2. It is not possible to push a message to
the customer or a group using KAKAO
API
3. It is not possible to publish a message to
the Plus friend timeline using KAKAO API
4. It is not possible to get the list of
followers via KAKAO API
5. To push a messages (Offers, Coupons,
Articles etic) to followers personal
account chat or timeline brands’ must
use KAKAO CMS web application.
Timeline
1
2
3

16. 3. KAKAO
With Kakao Pay, businesses can offer scannable loyalty cards with barcodes
that customers can store in their digital wallet.
Brands’ can push coupons, cards to followers but only through Kakao
Manager application.
At the moment it is not clear to us how loyalty cards and coupons works in
KAKAO.

17. 4. WhatsApp
1. Personal Account
2. WhatsApp for Business
There are 2 types of WhatsApp Accounts:
WhatsApp for Business API is available.
It is possible to send Push Messages to the personal users this REST API.
To be updated……….