Tencent super app WeChat celebrates a decade of influence in China’s online world, but are its best years behind?
- WeChat has helped make Tencent the largest company in Asia and propelled its market capitalisation to US$800 billion, the sixth biggest globally
- While WeChat does not have to worry about foreign competition, it is facing a fierce fight from emerging domestic rivals like ByteDance
Chen Channing, a 30-year-old legal professional in Shenzhen, cannot go a day without WeChat, the all purpose app developed by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings.
Before he brushes his teeth in the morning, Chen checks for messages on the app. He uses the payment function to ride the subway to work and on the way reads the WeChat news digest. At the office, Chen spends most of his working day using the desktop version of the app.
In his leisure time, Chen shares pictures and music with friends using the mobile version and when he is hungry, meals are ordered and paid for on WeChat too. “WeChat has become part of every aspect of my life and work,” Chen said. “I cannot live without it.”
It is the same story for many of the 1.09 billion people who use the app every day – predominantly mainland Chinese – who have come to depend on WeChat for their daily life.
A study by data provider China Internet Watch found that WeChat users spend an average of 77 minutes a day on the app, which effectively provides the equivalent of WhatsApp, Instagram, Google, Facebook and PayPal on one platform.
WeChat also accounted for one fifth, or 21.5 per cent, of total user time on the mobile internet as of September 2020, according to QuestMobile.