French ad firm CEO says China’s WeChat 'much better than the Facebooks of the world'
Yannick Bolloré says the last 20 years for China are 'by far the most impressive recovery story for a country'
Chinese social media platform WeChat is better for marketers than Western offerings such as Facebook, the chief executive of Havas, a top advertising firm, told CNBC on Monday.
WeChat is owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent and boasts 700 million monthly active users, according to data tracker Quest Mobile. It is the dominant messaging service in the world's second-largest economy.
The app allows people to text and voice call each other, make payments, and interact with "bots" – a similar feature to what Facebook unveiled last week.
The ability to make payments and even book restaurants means WeChat has become a big part of Chinese phone users' lives.
For marketers looking to advertise to Chinese consumers, this is attractive.
"Social platforms are very important in my industry. I would say that the best social platform in the world for me is WeChat, it's much better than the Facebooks of the world," Yannick Bolloré, the chief executive of Havas, said on Monday.