Wechat (Weixin as called in China) is the largest social media app in China with 1.2 billion Monthly active users and it is the 6th largest such platform worldwide. It is a Super app with messaging, payment, e-commerce and other 3rd party apps and services all bundled together.
Wechat official accounts are part of Wechat for Business. It allows companies and brands to interact with their followers and users of their product and services and share them with relevant content or conduct an e-commerce transaction.
There are mainly two kinds of Business accounts :
1) Subscription accounts which are mainly for domestic companies Only and for Marketing purposes
2) Service accounts which are open to International companies as well and are mainly used for sales and customer support related business needs. This is also a main way for International brands who are looking to sell their products and services in China, to create their Mini Program as an e-commerce App within wechat and tied to their official accounts. Mini Programs are an app with size less than 10 MB and are accessible only within Wechat Interface. Mini Programs have become quite popular in Tier 3 and above cities in China due to convenience of such apps for easy discoverability and providing all key functions of Wechat and more importantly a trust for the associated brands and services as they operate within Wechat.
There are close to 20 Million Official accounts and a large proportion of users follow Official accounts to get latest news and promotional offers from their followed accounts.