Subscription Account: Generally used for regular sharing of information. There will be a subscriptions folder whereas all posts from the Subscription OAs that a user follows can be found in a blue folder in the “Chats” tab. Opening this folder, user is presented with a list of accounts that they read frequently and underneath a feed of content published by accounts they follow. Key features include one push per day, up to 8 articles in each push; top 2 articles visible in feed; lower commitment from users.

Service Account: Main purpose is for customer service, e-commerce and higher touch services. Service Accounts live in a user’s main “Chats” feed, among their friends and group chats. This makes them much more prominent than Subscription Accounts. Key features include four pushes per month and up to 8 articles in each push; personalized content and more intrusive to user’s WeChat account.

In terms of push notification, a subscription account does not push notifications to users, only a red dot beside the thumbnail, it provides 1 push article per day with up to 8 articles in each push. Service account provides 4 push articles per month, up to 8 articles each time and the push notifications send to users as regular chat which means it can send personalized content with the help of CRMs.

Also, subscription account is more on producing high-quality content to push on a high-frequency basis to the audience while service account is focusing on push notifications to users with the content of order information, booking information, etc, after-sales service and the access to a tool to sell online. Content is searchable on Sogou search engine (搜狗). Original content can be certified and re-shared by other accounts with mention to the original publisher.

Service account content is not searchable on Sogou search engine, it has more API and SDK access that gives more flexibility to customized development such as native eCommerce features, Wechat payment, QR code tracking and so on. The basic menu customizations are available to verify and unverified accounts alike.

Some additional features can be unlocked once the account is verified for example custom menus, menu interface, voucher cards, WeChat advertising and more. To choose which account that you are going to create will be based on the goals that you want to achieve.