In Western cultures, exchanging contact information might be a simple swap of phone numbers or email addresses. In China, the act of exchanging 联系方式 is often the first step in building `关系 (guānxi)`, or a personal connection. The most significant cultural difference is the dominance of WeChat (微信 - wēixìn). While in the West you might ask, “What's your number?”, in China, the most common and natural way to exchange contact info, even in business, is “我们加个微信吧” (wǒmen jiā ge wēixìn ba) - “Let's add each other on WeChat.” Exchanging 联系方式 is less about a single data point and more about being invited into someone's digital social sphere. Your WeChat account includes “Moments” (朋友圈 - péngyǒuquān), which is similar to a Facebook feed. By connecting on WeChat, you are implicitly agreeing to a more continuous and informal connection than a simple phone number would allow. This reflects a culture that values building holistic, long-term relationships over purely transactional ones.
This term is versatile and used across all levels of formality.