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WeChat Interesting Key Facts
- As of the second quarter of 2022, WeChat has an astonishing 1.3 billion users.
- More than 70% of China’s population are using WeChat.
- On August 6, 2020, Trump banned WeChat and Tiktok from U.S.A.
- On June 09, 2021, Biden signed an executive order revoking the ban on WeChat and Tiktok.
- In 2014, partnered with Spring Festival Gala, WeChat introduced “Shake your Booty” wherein users would shake their phone in order to win red envelopes. The number of shakes achieved a total frequency of 11 billion and a peak of 810 million per minute!
- The Red Envelope War is an on going financial battle between Tencent and Alibaba. It’s a showdown that reaches it peak on every Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve. The two companies would present to the people how many red envelopes were sent that year on their platforms and how much its worth.
- This financial battle was started in 2014 when Tencent, a social media company, suddenly shifted it’s business dynamics towards Alibaba’s territory, payment and commerce, by launching the WeChat Red Envelope. Alibaba, in return, launch a similar function through Alipay. Since then, the two giant companies have been competing on purchases of exclusive rights on TV shows, handing out give away and coupons, lowering costs of services, and on many others.
- In 2014, WeChat launched a function where users can split bills, virtually.
- There are currently 4.3 million mini programs on WeChat.
Sources: AP News, Tech in Asia, IMD, Forbes, Technode
WeChat: Company Overview (About)
WeChat is an instant messaging client released in 2011 by Tencent Holdings Limited in China. it works on Android, iOS, MacOS, Windows, and HarmonyOS.
Let's now look at some must-know information about WeChat.
How Much is WeChat Worth? (Valuation)
The most recent WeChat valuation was in 2021, at $67.3 billion. Though, the highest one was in 2015, at $83.6 billion.
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The following table shows WeChat’s valuation throughout the years:
Source: Tech in Asia, TechCrunch, TeleMedia Online, Fortune
How does WeChat make money?
WeChat’s revenue streams come from the fees it collects from value-added services, advertisements, and WeChat payments. A good portion of this revenue stream comes from its mini programs feature where payments from both online and real world can be transacted.
Aside from that, functions like ‘moments’ generates income for WeChat by charging money purchased emoticons.
Source: FourWeekMBA, TechCrunch
WeChat-driven Traditional Goods Consumption
Speaking of traditional goods consumption, WeChat made sales worth RMB 419.8 billion in 2018.
The following shows data on sales of traditional goods like clothes, foods, and other goods on WeChat from 2016 to 2018:
Source: Dragon Social
WeChat: Shopping Gross Merchandise Value
The most recent information about WeChat's GMV is in 2019, at $136.66 billion.
The following table shows WeChat’s GMV:
Source: iResearchChina
Western Brands that Use WeChat
This list consists of a few major western brands that use WeChat:
- Burberry
- Mulberry
- Starbucks
- Pepsi
- McDonalds
- Coca-Cola
Source: MarketMeChina, Econsultancy, Tech in Asia
How many users does WeChat have?
The freshest information about WeChat's users was in the 2nd quarter of 2022, with 1.30 billion users on the app.
The table below shows you WeChat's number of users throughout the past few years. We started counting in 2016, all the way up to 2022.
Source: Tencent 1, Tencent 2, Tencent 3, Tencent 4, Tencent 5, Tencent 6, Tencent 7
Age Distribution of WeChat Users in China as of 2022
The most popular age group of WeChat users in China is the "Over 51 years old", with a 22.70% share.
Then, there's the "Under 24 years old" group, with a 22.30% share.
The following table shows the age distribution of WeChat users in China as of 2022:
Source: Statista
WeChat Penetration in China (2015)
As of the data taken from 2015, the following table shows the percentage of population who uses WeChat per tier of cities.
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The table below shows you WeChat's penetration in China in 2015 judging by the 5 tiers of cities.
Source: China Internet Watch
How many messages are being sent on WeChat per day?
So far, the average number of messages being sent in WeChat is 45 billion. This data was announced in 2019 from one of Tencent’s now archived and unavailable report. Currently, there are no new data pertaining to this section.
The table below shows you the number of messages sent on WeChat throughout 2017, as well as 2019.
Sources: Tech in Asia, HBR
How many voice and video calls are there on WeChat per day?
WeChat had 410 million voice and video calls per day in 2019, according to an article.
Source: ZD Net
How many call minutes are there on WeChat in a month?
Data back in 2017 shows that there is an average of 139 minutes of calls on WeChat per month.
Source: Technode
What are WeChat Mini Programs?
WeChat Mini programs are “apps within the app” that was launched by WeChat in 2017. These mini programs can be created by business owners within WeChat’s ecosystem. These mini programs have a lot of variations that are created for various purposes.
These are highly used in transactions and other functions all across China.
Source: TechCrunch, Ecovis
How many WeChat mini programs are there?
In 2021, there were 4.3 million mini programs on WeChat.
The table below shows you the number of WeChat mini programs, ranging from 2018 to 2021.
Sources: Reuters, Walk the Chat, Daxue Consulting, Dragon Social
Most popular mini programs by category
The most popular mini programs category on WeChat is Games, with 42% of the users in 2020.
The following table shows the most popular mini programs by category as of 2020.
Source: EduGlobal China
E-commerce mini programs industry distribution in 2017
Rank as the fourth most popular category , e-commerce mini programs are used by various business owners to sell their products or services.
The following data shows the percentage distribution of mini programs on different e-commerce industries based on a survey in 2017 with 50,000 mini programs as the sample population.
Source: Jing Daily
How much money has been transacted through WeChat mini programs?
As of 2021, WeChat has facilitated close to $250 billion in annual transactions through its mini programs.
Source: TechCrunch
How much money do people spend per month via mini programs (RMB)?
The following table shows how much money people spend per month via mini programs in 2017 based on a survey with 50,000 mini programs as the sample population.
Source: Jing Daily
How many WeChat mini programs users are there (Daily)?
WeChat's mini programs have over 450 million daily users.
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The data in the table below shows you the amount of daily users on WeChat's mini programs in the past few years.
Source: Statista
Number of usage times per app user on mini programs - Monthly
These are the average numbers of usage times per app user on mini programs in 2019 and 2020.
Source: Statista
Minutes used per app user on mini programs - Monthly
These are the average numbers of minutes used per app user on mini programs in 2019 and 2020.
Source: Statista
What are the top cities that use mini programs in China?
Beijing is by far most popular city for WeChat's mini programs in China. Following are Guangzhou, Shenzen, Shanghai, and other cities.
The following table shows data on the top cities in china that use mini programs in 2017 based on a survey with 50,000 mini programs as the sample population.
Source: Jing Daily
What is WeChat Pay and how does it work?
WeChat Pay is a digital wallet and mobile payment service by WeChat. It allows users to make mobile payments and online transactions.
Source: Finance Magnets
WeChat Pay number of users throughout the years
- March 2016: 300 million users
- March 2021: 800 million users
Sources: All China Tech, Emerchant Pay
How many people work in the WeChat ecoystem? (Employees + others)
Tencent is not releasing information on the number of employees + collaborators and its distribution percentage across its various apps and services.
The numbers are estimated based on the jobs generated for the WeChat ecosystem each year.
In 2021, it was estimated that 46.18 million of people worked at WeChat.
Source: Pandaily, KR Asia, Global Times
WeChat’s Percentage of Mobile Users Against its Competitors
The following table shows percentage distribution of mobile users among different social media apps as of 2019:
Source: Statista
WeChat Mini Games
WeChat mini games are games that are created in WeChat via its mini programs function. These mini games creates profit for brands through in app purchases and advertisements.
Some mini games are built with the sole purpose of promoting a brand.
Source: Daxue Consulting
What are the top WeChat mini games in 2019?
The following list shows the top WeChat mini games in 2019 by the number of active users per month (MAU).
Source: Quest Mobile
WeChat Red Envelope
WeChat Red Envelope, or WeChat Red Packet, is a mobile application that is created by Tencent on WeChat. It’s concept revolves around the Chinese tradition “hongbao” where money is placed inside a small red envelope which would be given to family and friends as a gift.
This concept is also offered by Tencent’s market competitors, Alibaba and Baidu.
This application can be utilized by the users to give monetary gifts as virtual credits. Money will be then deposited to the user’s WeChat Pay account which, in turn, can be use for purchases.
Source: Chinosity
What are the types of WeChat Red Envelope?
There are two types of WeChat Red Envelope (Red Packets):
- Pairwise red packets- are red envelopes that are sent between two users.
- Group red packets- are red envelopes that distribute money among a group of people in the chat. The amount of money that users receive in the group chat are randomly assigned.
Source: Major Tom
How many WeChat red envelopes were sent throughout the years?
The following list shows the number of WeChat red envelopes sent at the end of each year.
- 2015: 2 billion WeChat red envelopes
- 2016: 8 billion WeChat red envelopes
- 2017: 14.2 billion WeChat red envelopes
Sources: QZ, Daxue Consulting, Tech Crunch
WeChat Website Traffic Analysis Overview
The following table shows the key stat and key info of WeChat Website traffic analysis.
Sources: HypeStat
WeChat Website Traffic Sources
WeChat's website traffic is 46.16% direct, with the next most popular category being the referrals, with 37.21% of the traffic.
Source: HypeStat
WeChat Traffic Source: Desktop vs Mobile
- 37.30% of the users visit the website through desktop devices
- 62.70% of the users visit the website through mobile devices
Source: HypeStat
How much time do people spend on WeChat?
The average time spent on WeChat on a daily basis is of 77 minutes (2019).
These are the average time spent using WeChat on a daily basis.
Sources: The Drum, China Internet Watch
WeChat Mobile App Statistics
These are the key stats and key info on WeChat mobile app on Android taken from Google Play as of November 2022:
These are the key stats and key info on WeChat mobile app on iOS take from Apple Store as of November 2022:
Sources: Google Play, Apple Store
What are the top countries are visiting WeChat’s Website?
WeChat is most visited in China, with 20.26% of the traffic share. Then, there's Hong Kong with 17.57% of the app's traffic.
WeChat is mainly popular in its mobile apps. However, we would like to show you data on the top countries visiting WeChat’s website. This table represents that data.
Source: Similarweb
Where is WeChat available? Which Countries?
WeChat is available on almost all countries except for India.
India banned both WeChat and TikTok from the country amidst the growing tension on border disputes between the two countries.
Also, WeChat was banned in USA last 2020. The ban was lifted last 2021 under the new administration.
WeChat was also banned in Russia on May 06, 2017 but was later revoked 5 days after. This leaves India being the only country to have banned WeChat.
Sources: WeChat, The China Project, Washington Post, Reuters
