Women to Watch 2023: Zoe Chou, Tencent

Zoe Chou

Director of Tencent WeChat strategic research institute and WeChat PR centre
Tencent
China

Leading the WeChat PR team for over a decade, Zoe Chou has established the PR framework for Weixin (the Chinese mainland version of WeChat) since its launch in 2011. No easy feat to accomplish, considering the effort it takes to create a strategic and successful programme that sets new PR benchmarks, especially for a leading super app to surpass its own performance. 

Chou achieved the goal of interacting with its 1.3 billion users to fulfill the mission of ‘Tech for Good’ on digital platforms and create social values. With the ‘Light Chasing’ New Year Celebration programme on Weixin Channels, in partnership with Guangdong Media Group, Shanghai Media Group and China Central Television, the number of livestreaming audiences over the last three years has increased from more than 1 million in 2021 to 10 million in 2022, and 36 million in 2023.

For Chou and her team, Weixin’s Channel also supports a project for poverty alleviation and rural development through livestreaming shopping that generates a GMV of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.37 million). The team also initiated the first Youth AI and Future Media Innovation Challenge in China and collaborated with the China Welfare Association and Beijing Normal University, to support young people in improving internet and technological literacy together with families, schools and other stakeholders.

Chou is a firm believer that public relations should not just be an occupation, but an essential quality and a strategic component for business development. She leads the team with a flat structure, and values ideas and opinions from everyone. This fosters an open and honest atmosphere that not only sparks innovation and productivity, but also attracts outstanding new talents to join.

For more than a decade, she has led her team dedicated to innovation; eager to break new ground, and focused on delivering valuable results for the development of China’s super app. The communications projects she’s worked on have been shortlisted and won multiple industry awards, including the IPRA Golden World Awards, the Cannes Lions and the award of the UNESCO Digital Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.

In addition, Chou championed a programme to maximise the impact of women and consistently focused on helping women realise their potential. She organised a series of forums and workshops aimed at empowering women’s career growth within the Weixin ecosystem, which have inspired and encouraged more women to pursue their goals and aspirations with confidence.

Before joining Tencent in 2010, Chou was one of the earliest pioneers in the internet branding and communications industry in China. She worked at Dow Chemical and on Broadway, where she brought the first Chinese musical ‘Soul of Shaolin’ to a Broadway theater.