How the WeChat App Is Driving NYC’s Chinese Restaurant Scene

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Some of New York’s most popular new Chinese restaurants have never appeared in an American publication. They don’t get ’grammed by Instagram influencers. Their owners don’t look at Yelp, and they often aren’t mentioned in the Michelin Guide. But they’re still flourishing, packed with primarily Chinese diners — and they have little interest in attracting people in the city who don’t speak Chinese.

These restaurants — often specializing in regional Chinese cuisines that are historically uncommon in NYC — target a growing Mandarin-speaking population through WeChat, the mighty Chinese social-media application that is a combination of Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, Venmo, and other big American apps and platforms.

A number of WeChat official accounts, which are similar to Instagram- or Twitter-verified influencer accounts, publish Chinese-language restaurant recommendations in New York. And in doing so, they play a critical role in the city’s Chinese food ecosystem — one that’s entirely independent of the dining scene that’s driven by media mentions and English-language user-based platforms such as Foursquare and Instagram. These WeChat accounts are their own system, funneling restaurant news and discounts to tens of thousands of Chinese diners in NYC.

They’re shaping the dining landscape in New York, and they’re doing it without most New Yorkers even knowing.

In the past few years, the explosive growth of WeChat, which has amassed more than 1 billion monthly users, coincided with a huge influx of foreign-born Chinese to New York City, and the convergence of the two has helped forge the city’s Chinese dining scene.

Between 2000 and 2015, the population of foreign-born Chinese people in NYC grew by nearly 50 percent, the second-fastest-growing immigrant group, according to government data. By comparison, NYC population overall grew about 7 percent in the same time period. In particular, young Chinese people have flocked to the city. At New York University alone, the population of Chinese international students more than doubled between 2012 and 2016, something that’s already impacted the East Village dining scene. Columbia University, too, has nearly 5,000 students from China, far more than from any other international country; both schools rank in the top three in the country for international student population size. The soaring Chinese student population reflects a trend seen at universities across the country.

Chinese immigrants in the city are also far more diverse than previous generations. Decades ago, most Chinese restaurant workers and owners came from southern China’s Guangdong or Fujian provinces. To survive, many specialized in American-style Chinese food, with General Tso’s chicken being a signature takeout fix.

But today, both the restaurateurs and their customers come from all over China, cosmopolises and far-flung small towns alike. The crop of young Chinese has brought demand for an increasingly varied and specific range of Chinese goodies, like chun’er (Chinese skewers) or different styles of hot pot from various regions, according to people in the dining and marketing businesses. Many young people are also choosing to go into the restaurant industry instead of doing it out of need.

The WeChat food accounts are a reaction to the new market. Young immigrants run the accounts; all three account operators interviewed for this story came to the U.S. for education. The people paid to write reviews are students or young professionals, too.

Like many of their English-speaking social-media influencer counterparts, the accounts started off as groups of enthusiastic food lovers sharing restaurant findings, doing so as public service for fellow Chinese people in the city. They started gaining traction here around 2015, according to people running popular NYC accounts.

But as their popularity grew and advertising opportunities started knocking on the door, the accounts transitioned into commercial operations — sharing not just restaurant information but more general news that might be of interest to Chinese people in the greater New York area, like a roundup of food-delivery platforms that feature both general and Chinese-specific apps, or an explainer on the New York subway system. Now, about four accounts have risen to the top, each drawing more than 50,000 followers.

It’s become a full-time business for some, though they all declined to disclose revenue. The Foodie Squad of the Greater New York (大纽约吃货小分队) is part of a media company that was started in Los Angeles by Chinese immigrants and now operates similar accounts in 13 metro areas across the United States, including New York, Chicago, and Seattle. Since it entered New York at the end of 2016, it’s gained more than 55,000 followers. In each new market, it enacts a similar formula: initially provide information without ads to attract followers, and build up a following over the course of six months to a year.

Then, the accounts start posting a daily mix of advertorials, recommendations informed by editorial taste, and public-service information. They include reviews on single restaurants, and listicles, which can be paid or unpaid, by location or cuisine, like “66 Must-Go Flushing Restaurants” or “10 New Bubble Tea Parlors in New York.” (Listicles, account managers say, tend to attract more clicks.) Other times, the accounts seek out prominent chefs at Michelin-starred restaurants, including non-Chinese ones, for Q&As, and occasionally, there are informational pieces, like a story about how Western-style food such as steak, served with soy sauce, became popular in China.

Now, most of the pieces on popular accounts are paid for by the restaurants. They’re less blog or newspaper and more “social media agency,” says Melanie Yang, business development manager of the Foodie Squad — telling people about new restaurants and giving restaurants feedback from their followers, who can leave comments on articles. “Some do listen,” she says.

The restaurants that tend to advertise on WeChat — high-end and no-frills alike — are mostly in Flushing, Queens, and Manhattan’s Chinatown. They are eager to grab a market share in competitive neighborhoods with a big Chinese presence.

Only using WeChat is often a matter of necessity; some restaurateurs lack the institutional tools, like knowledge of American social media culture or bilingual public relations, to attract non-Chinese eaters.

But many simply don’t need to attract non-Chinese customers. They’re getting enough Chinese people to keep the business running — which is why they’re happy to ignore English-language platforms. It’s ultimately more economical for these restaurants to spend money on WeChat bloggers versus feeding Instagram influencers or hiring English-speaking publicists. Jess Wen, editor-in-chief of WeChat account New York Rating Hall (纽约评分堂), which has over 10,000 followers, says that in her experience, most Chinese restaurants look to rake in immediate revenue rather than building a brand. As such, a review from the Times wouldn’t matter much.

Many are getting enough Chinese people to keep the business running — which is why they’re happy to ignore English-language platforms.

Lei Chen — who owns Friendship Foods BBQ and Grill Master in Flushing and has been in NYC restaurants for almost 13 years — says he doesn’t even have the capacity to add dishes that Chinese people wouldn’t order. Most of his menus are tailored toward Chinese palates, with delicacies such as beef tripe or duck head. There is limited space to accommodate the only a dozen or so non-Chinese customers each day, he says. Targeting non-Chinese people in ads or on American social media wouldn’t make sense.

Not only does WeChat speak more to its target audience of Chinese immigrants, ads on these accounts offer more for the cost than English language counterparts.

The going rate for a WeChat ad post featuring a single New York restaurant ranges from $500 to $1,500, depending on the platform’s follower count and traffic statistics, according to account managers. For the price, writers produce lengthy reviews in Chinese, often thousands of words, and always accompany text with a dozen or so pictures of food shot by a professional photographer. Average pageviews of each article can reach 3,500 to 5,000 for a popular account with 50,000 followers, excluding individual user shares, according to account owners. Some accounts also offer package deals. For instance, if a restaurant buys a package to run a promo article several times in six months, the cost could be $2,500 to $3,000, according to Wen of New York Rating Hall.

By comparison, an Instagram account with 10,000 to 50,000 followers can charge from $250 to $500 for a single photo post with a caption, while a bilingual publicist can cost thousands per month to keep on retainer.

Restaurants also often immediately feel the effect of WeChat digital marketing, and tracking the impact of advertising is easy because of freebies offered to readers in the pieces, restaurateurs and account managers say. Wen says that one feature can bring 100 to 200 customers within the first week of publication. Chen, of the two Flushing restaurants, says that every time he pays for a WeChat post, he sees more people line up for tables.

To maintain profitability, most of the accounts are heavy on commercial pieces; a minority of them dedicate 60 to 70 percent of articles to restaurants that the team has tried and genuinely recommends.

Despite this, many followers say they still rely on these recommendations over independent editorial pieces from English-language publications like the New York Times, Time Out New York, or this very publication, Eater.

Western food critics tend to describe a holistic dining experience in Chinese restaurant reviews, noting service, atmosphere, and the background of the chef, often with a novelty-seeking tone. The restaurant reviews on WeChat are instead focused almost solely on the food itself, going into the flavor, presentation, texture, and smell of each dish. Several users say they prefer this style of review.

The real appeal for the people reading the reviews is that they are more likely to trust Chinese food recommendations from fellow Chinese.

It’s also fairly easy to discern ads from unpaid reviews. Most of the ads list a discount code or free drink or appetizer to dine at the promoted restaurant, while editorial review pieces don’t. And followers end up combining WeChat with other services to choose restaurants. Shali Wan, who moved to NYC in 2016 and reads WeChat food bloggers, says she also values friends’ recommendations and looks at Yelp reviews.

But the real appeal for the people reading the reviews is that they are more likely to trust Chinese food recommendations from fellow Chinese, rather than food critics’ picks in the American press or Yelp reviews — even when they know that restaurants are paying for some of the information, according to multiple followers of such WeChat accounts.

Wan has noticed that the Chinese restaurants she likes often don’t get great ratings on Yelp. She’s found that Yelpers seem to favor sweeter food, can’t handle lots of spice, or claim to be allergic to MSG, she says. They also care more about service and environment than she does, she adds. So though she admits that it’s “off-putting” when food doesn’t taste as good as a WeChat account advertises, it’s ultimately still better than reading English reviews alone.

“I don’t really trust Americans’ taste for Chinese food,” she says. “The things they like are usually not to my taste.”

With the reliance on paid content, WeChat account managers and reviewers interviewed by Eater admit that sometimes the food at the restaurants that pay them isn’t as good as expected. When this happens, they share a common strategy: Shift the focus of the review to other aspects of the dining experience. For instance, the review might instead talk about decor to divert from mediocre food.

Some accounts set higher bars for paid reviews, though. Yang of the Foodie Squad says when restaurants approach them, the team first makes undercover trips, paying their own way before undertaking a partnership. They then only write about restaurants that pass their standard, Yang says. “If we think the food was just so-so, we will offer our advice to better the dishes,” she says. “And we may go back and write about the restaurant later if the food quality is improved.”

An article on WeChat official account

And Where to Eat in New York (纽约吃啥哟), a WeChat account with more than 60,000 followers, draws the line at paid listicles. “I have been asked by clients whether I could tag them in our listicles and conclude that they are the best,” says Taylor Hei, who runs the account. “I said, ‘No. Listicles are our most fair reviews. We won’t commercialize them.’”

But the growing number of WeChat accounts in the space has created competition among the influencers themselves, and as such, many say that traffic on individual posts has declined. Still, for restaurant owners, just reminding people about their business is enough.

Restaurateur Chen says he thinks average pageviews have decreased by nearly half. Now, the point of WeChat marketing is no longer to bring in more new business, but to maintain the restaurants’ popularity and keep users informed with developments like specials, he says.

“The daily push inevitably has led to public exhaustion,” he says. “So we don’t have high expectations for the WeChat marketing pieces anymore. We only hope to promote ourselves and remind people that we are there.”

Not every New York Chinese restaurant publicizes via WeChat. It’s all part of the younger, tech-savvy generation of Chinese immigrants who have opened restaurants throughout the city in recent years.

And some restaurants aren’t opposed to venturing outside of WeChat or growing to serve non-Chinese diners. Chen wants to expand to non-Chinese clientele in the future, and when he does, he will he start using Instagram and Yelp more aggressively.

But along with English-language marketing efforts, he’ll also change the menu. No longer will it be dedicated to the delicacies more ubiquitous for the Chinese palate. For the English speakers, he says, he will add medium-rare steaks, chicken wings, “and deep-fried stuff.”

Shen Lu is an English-Chinese bilingual journalist based in New York. She writes about the Chinese diaspora, immigration, gender, and money.

Eater NY

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