NEWS // WeChat reaches 1B users

March 5, 2018. 

The date that China’s sensationally popular social media app reached one billion active users.

Phenomenal growth

That growth is phenomenal. According to a report released by parent company, Tencent, last September, WeChat user accounts registered an annual growth of 15.8 percent, with 902 million users sending 38 billion messages daily. WeChat grew by 100,000,000 (10%) since September.

By comparison, Facebook had over 2.13 billion monthly active users for the fourth quarter of  2017.

Convenience

WeChat offers more convenience to its users than apps available in the U.S. Like Facebook and others, WeChat is a social media app. It allows multiple users the ability to easier create groups. It offers almost 600,000 mini-programs and games to its users. 

WeChat allows users to bank online, including paying bills and sending money. Most Chinese pay their restaurant charges, cover store purchases, and give money-gifts to each other with several taps on their WeChat app. Mobile payments are gradually replacing cash payments in China. 

Integral to Chinese life

Forbes Magazine observes, “It’s no exaggeration to say that life in modern China without WeChat is pretty much unthinkable. Tencent’s blockbuster super-app is the poster child for China’s mobile lifestyle, embedding itself into all aspects of daily life in ways that are sometimes hard for people based outside of mainland China to fully grasp.”

Sources: People’s Daily, Zephoria, Forbes, The Verge
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