20 WeChat Statistics and Usage Trends

WeChat, or Weixin in China, is a social media app launched by Tencent in 2011. The app started out as a messaging and networking service like, say, Facebook, or WhatsApp. However, the platform has since gone on to introduce several more features that have made it an increasingly indispensable companion among its predominantly Chinese users. While WeChat statistics indicate the platform’s use outside China remains fairly low, and concerns related to censorship and privacy remain pertinent, its dominance in one of the largest markets in the world makes it an entity well-worth understanding.

WeChat Stats (Editor’s Choice)

• WeChat has over 1.2 billion monthly active users.
• 78% of people in China aged 16-64 are using WeChat.
• WeChat has 1.48 million monthly active users in the US.
• 23% of US internet users in the 18–24 age group use WeChat.
• WeChat users send 45 billion messages daily.
• WeChat users spend 82 minutes on the platform every day.
• The majority of WeChat Mini Programs transactions are under 1000 RMB.
• WeChat Pay has registered 900+ million monthly active users.

WeChat Usage Statistics

1. WeChat has over 1.2 billion monthly active users. 

That’s more than the population of Europe and Russia combined! When ranking the most popular social networking sites worldwide, WeChat ranks a commendable fifth. The only other sites/apps above it are three Facebook platforms (Facebook, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger) and YouTube. Some other well-known platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn score below WeChat in terms of active users.

(Statista)

2. WeChat is the most popular mobile social media platform in China.

With 73.7% of internet users accessing the platform frequently, WeChat remains the most popular social media platform in China. WeChat also accounts for over 30% of the time Chinese people spend online which further proves that WeChat popularity never stopped growing.

(Statista, CNBC)

3. WeChat accounts for 34% of China’s total data traffic.  

Given all that one can do on WeChat, both at work and leisure, it’s understandable that its share of total data traffic is very high. No single app has this kind of dominance over such a large market in any other part of the world. In contrast, Facebook statistics show the social network accounts for only 14.1% of the traffic in North America, 23.6% in Latin America, and 16% in Europe.

(Walk the Chat)

4. Hong Kong’s penetration is 53.1%, the highest outside mainland China.

Despite the large number of users worldwide, WeChat has stayed relatively under the radar because the number of active WeChat users outside China is quite low. Since Tencent does not release territory-related user data, it was notoriously difficult to get information on WeChat users by country. Unsurprisingly, Hong Kong has very high penetration, as does Singapore at 33%. 

(Statista)

5. After China, WeChat.com’s second-highest traffic comes from Hong Kong. 

While global WeChat’s traffic isn’t the best way to get an idea of the overall WeChat stats, it is interesting to note that, as of April 2021, Hong Kong accounts for 15.94% of the site’s traffic. This is followed by the US, which accounts for 13.16% of the traffic.

(SimilarWeb)

6. WeChat had 1.48 million monthly active users in the US as of September 2019.

Among the most popular messenger apps in the US, apart from the usual suspects like Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and WhatsApp, other competitors like GroupMe, Discord, Kik, and Telegram rank above WeChat. Even within the US, a large proportion of the users are believed to be members of the Chinese diaspora.

(Statista)

7. 90% of Chinese professionals prefer WeChat for workplace communications. 

With its huge user base and an increasing number of features enabling work-related tasks, WeChat stats show that it continues to blur the line between personal and professional life, with nearly 90% of more than 20,000 surveyed web users in China considering the app their top choice for daily work communication. It can even serve as a no-frills video conferencing software, thanks to the Group Calls feature.

(South China Morning Post)

8. 70% of the Chinese rely on WeChat for work-related communications instead of email.

Chinese users may not check their email accounts regularly, but they frequently read their messages on WeChat. With 70% of the Chinese using WeChat instead of email to communicate with clients, suppliers, and colleagues, organize work, and read professional information, the platform works as a great resource to generate leads.

(MarketingToChina)

9. WeChat at Work has 60 million active users.

WeChat at Work is a collaborative communication tool similar to Slack that’s found favor with many Chinese workers. According to the WeChat statistics, it had 60 million active users from 2.5 million registered companies across 50 different industries. This is a significant growth from 2018 when there were 30 million active users and 1.5 million companies. 

(China Internet Watch, WeChat Wiki)

10. WeChat users send 45 billion messages daily. 

WeChat users are averaging 45 billion messages daily. Additionally, users make approximately 410 million audio and video calls every day. According to these WeChat stats, the platform’s usage has expanded sixfold compared to 2016.

(Harvard Business Review, ZDNet)

11. WeChat has 68 million videos uploaded every day. 

The app has emerged as a strong competitor to Snapchat and YouTube. While it’s still some distance away from catching up with YouTube’s 300 hours worth of videos uploaded every minute (YouTube doesn’t release data on the number of videos), video has surely emerged as one of the more popular services among the wide range of things one can do on the platform.

(In The Black)

12. The average number of contacts on WeChat accounts is 2x higher compared to 2016.

With its user base growing at a rapid pace, WeChat continues to build upon the number and quality of services it offers. The more connected its users become, the stickier the platform gets, and the more frequently it’s used. A 2x increase in three years is a remarkable growth.

(ZDnet)

13. WeChat users are consuming 46TB of data every minute during the morning rush hour. 

WeChat managed to become the prime app during the morning rush hour mainly because of their efforts to integrate their technology with public transportation networks across China. It’s estimated that 250,000 people are accessing the app by scanning QR codes in buses and metros and consuming 46TB of data. 

(TechNode)

14. WeChat users spend 82 minutes on the platform every day. 

The platform also has an impressive 7-day retention ratio of 98.3%.

(Walk the Chart)

15. The average senior WeChat user has 104 WeChat friends, 23% of whom are family members. 

WeChat helps seniors maintain a contact network. But beyond connecting with friends and family, 75% of WeChat users aged 55+ access the platform to read subscription articles, 62% to share them, and more than half of this demographic uses WeChat’s payment app, WeChat Pay. 

(Business of Apps)

16. 60% of WeChat users open the app more than 10 times a day.

WeChat scores very high on engagement rates as well, with more than 60% of its users opening the app more than 10 times every day. WeChat stats show that an incredible 21% of them do so more than 50 times!

(The Financial Brand)

17. Hospital wait times have gone down by 43.6 minutes when using WeChat. 

China’s hospitals are noted for their inefficiencies. Using modern technology to bypass some of the inherent issues, 40% of health institutions in China are using WeChat in some form. This includes communicating news and updates with patients, sharing information about doctors, and allowing patients to make appointments online. WeChat Pay is also used for accepting registration fees and medical bills. 

(Walk the Chat, Forbes)

WeChat User Base Statistics

18. 78% of people in China aged 16-64 are using WeChat.

As of 2020, 78% of people in China aged 16-64 are using WeChat. This is a slight decrease from 79% in 2019.

(We Are Social)

19. 98.5% of 50- to 80-year-old smartphone users in China use WeChat. 

Unlike many other global social networking apps, WeChat statistics show that the platform’s popularity has risen the fastest in recent times among senior users. It has become an integral part of the lifestyle, at least in China, with its messaging, calling, entertainment, and payment options taking care of multiple needs. According to a China Daily article, by September 2018, over 63 million WeChat users were registered as 55 years old and above.

(TechNode, China Daily)

20. 61% of users in the 60+ demographics are using more than half of the total mobile data usage on WeChat. 

WeChat is quite popular among the older demographic. Over 60% of Internet users aged 60+ are devoting over 50% of their mobile data usage on WeChat. This number is slightly lower for 36-60 olds (50%) and significantly lower among those aged 18-35 (25%) and those under 18 (14%). 

(Business of Apps)

21. 23% of US internet users in the 18–24 age group use WeChat. 

This stat can be useful for social media marketing experts that want to tap into the potential of WeChat. The adoption rate for WeChat in the US is the highest among the youngest adults. It’s slightly lower for the 25–34 group at 22% and then decreases progressively with increasing age, according to these WeChat statistics. In the UK, the highest use of WeChat is in the 25–34 age group at 23%, followed by 20% for the 18–24 group. 

(Cast From Clay)

22. 17% of male internet users in the US use WeChat, as opposed to 6% of female users. 

There’s a notable difference in the adoption rate for WeChat between male and female users in the US. In the UK, on the other hand, 11% of male internet users above 18 and 8% of their female countereparts report using WeChat.

(Cast From Clay)

23. 19% of US internet users with an annual household income over $100K use WeChat. 

There’s also a slight difference seen in WeChat usage in terms of household income, both in the US and the UK. In the US, as household incomes fall, the number of WeChat users also seems to decrease progressively. In the UK, households with annual income above £48,000 have 15% WeChat users, and this rate also mostly falls uniformly as the incomes decrease.

(Cast From Clay)

24. 13% of urban US internet users use WeChat, compared to 8% of rural users. 

Perhaps expectedly, the WeChat adoption rate, both in the US and the UK, is notably higher among urban internet users. In the UK, while 11% of internet users residing in urban areas use WeChat, only 6% of those in rural areas do so.

(Cast From Clay)

25. At 53%, the majority of WeChat users are male.

Women account for 47% of WeChat accounts, noting a slight increase from 2014 when only 35.7% of users were female. 

(WeChat Wiki)

WeChat Official Account Statistics

26. There are 20 million active WeChat Official Accounts. 

WeChat official accounts help brands promote content, attract followers, and connect the account to a mini-site hosted within WeChat. As many WeChat China users are accessing the platform as the main information source, more and more brands are starting to leverage WeChat for business. 

(WeChat Wiki)

27. 57.2% of WeChat Official Accounts followers are male.

Men are the predominant group that uses Official Accounts, more than the general WeChat population where men account for 53% of users. The most popular categories for males are finance-related, whereas women are more likely to follow shopping-related accounts. 

(Walk the Chat)

28. Just over 50% of WeChat Official Accounts users are at least 31 years old. 

WeChat statistics further show that the age distribution is fairly balanced. 49.5% of WeChat OA users are younger than 30 and just over 50% are 31 or older. People younger than 18 account for 2.20% of OA users, whereas the 46+ demographic makes for 4.30% of the OA user base.

(Walk the Chat)

29. 57.3% of users discover new Official Accounts to follow after being recommended from another OA account. 

From this stat, we can see that WeChat Official Accounts collaborate with each other and leverage cross-promotion. A large portion of users has discovered a new OA to follow after being recommended from an Official Account they are already following. 45% of users have come from search, 41% were recommended by friends, and 34.3% came from WeChat Moments. 

(Walk the Chat)

30. Nearly 50% of WeChat users are following 10-20 Official Accounts. 

The majority (49.3%) of WeChat users are following between 10 and 20 Official Accounts. 24% of users are following less than 10 accounts, whereas 19.7% are following 20-30. Only 4.3% are following between 30 and 50 Official Accounts, and a mere 2.7% are following more than 50. 

(Statista)

31. 54% of WeChat users spend up to 30 minutes following Official Accounts. 

Over half of WeChat users devote between 10 and 30 minutes following Official Accounts on the platform. Another 22% of them spend between 30 minutes and an hour doing so.

(Statista)

32. News and promotions are the two main reasons people follow WeChat Official Accounts. 

WeChat Official Accounts are a great way for entrepreneurs and businesses to earn money, as long as they’re providing what their audience expects from them. According to WeChat statistics, 74.2% of users cited news as the primary reason they follow any Official Account, while 41.9% do so for promotions.

(Statista)

33. 34% of WeChat Official Account owners say it has helped cut costs by more than 30%. 

WeChat Official Accounts proved objectively beneficial to their enterprise owners. Apart from the reduction in operational costs, 32% have sold products via these accounts, and 40% have used them to provide services or customer service. 

(Walk the Chat)

WeChat Mini Programs Statistics

34. The WeChat platform offers more than one million Mini Programs. 

Mini Programs are sub-applications, smaller than 10 MB in size that can run instantly on WeChat’s interface. They don’t need to be downloaded from any app store and run from within WeChat on any OS.  

(South China Morning Post)

35. 67% of WeChat ecommerce Mini Program users are female. 

According to WeChat stats, the numbers jump to 95% for vertical retailers. Such Mini Programs have helped brands like Longchamp, Gucci, Michael Kors, and Fendi market their products effectively.

(Luxion)

36. Mini Programs for food delivery and ecommerce are more useful than apps. 

47% of users agreed that Mini Programs for food delivery and ecommerce are more useful than apps. Mini Programs for car services and beauty cameras, on the other hand, are considered to be less useful than apps. 

(Statista)

37. The number of times users are using ecommerce Mini Programs increases by 53% during weekends. 

People love using ecommerce Mini Programs during weekends when usage increases by 53%. Additionally, WeChat ecommerce statistics reveal that the number of transactions on Mini Programs in 2019 was 27 times higher compared to the same period in 2018. 

(Medium)

38. The number of WeChat Mini Programs daily users reached 440 million.

As of 2020, 440 million people are using WeChat Mini Programs every day. This number is 33% higher than in 2019 when 330 million people used the famous sub-applications. 

(Statista)

39. WeChat Mini Programs have over 829 million monthly active users. 

The number of WeChat active users that access Mini Programs every month jumped from 743 million in 2019 to 829 million in 2020, noting an 11.6% YoY growth. As data further shows, the number of users who adopted Mini Programs grew from 78.6% to 86.9% in the same period. 

(Walk the Chat)

40. The average user engages with 9.8 Mini Programs. 

WeChat Mini Programs saw a boost in engagement along with the platform’s user base. According to WeChat statistics, the average user engages with nearly 10 Mini Programs. The number grew from 8.7 in 2019. 

(Walk the Chat)

41. The majority of WeChat Mini Programs transactions are under 1000 RMB.

What’s more, Mini Program users are willing to spend large amounts. 47.4% are spending between 200 and 1,000 RMB, 32.6% are spending under 200 RMB, and 20% are going over 1,000 RMB per month. All in all, over 1 billion transactions took place on WeChat Mini Programs every day in 2019, generating over 800 billion RMB of transactions. 

(Walk the Chat)

WeChat Moments Statistics

42. WeChat launched its own version of Facebook Stories in December 2018.

Providing ample proof that instead of resting on its laurels, WeChat is moving aggressively to corner as much of the social networking market as it can, the platform launched its biggest upgrade in six years in December 2018. This included two new sections: Time Capsule and Top Stories, as well as several news features for WeChat iOS 7.0.  

(China Internet Watch)

43. 76.4% of WeChat users use Moments to share experiences and to catch up with their friends’ stories on a daily basis.

Moments is the name for the social feeds of friends’ updates on WeChat, where users can post images, text, comments, and articles or share music and like shared content. This is the most popular feature offered by WeChat, with more users using it every day than any other feature. 61% of users said they check Moments every time they open the app, according to WeChat statistics. Advertising experts leverage this and target the Moments users to get their attention. 

(Statista)

44. WeChat Moments have 750+ million daily users.

The average user is accessing the platform at least 10 times a day. Overall, WeChat Moments registers 10 billion hits in a 24-hour period. 

(Business of Apps)

45. WeChat Moments is used most often in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Chengdu.

When it comes to the locations where WeChat international users are checking Moments, Seoul, Osaka, Jeju Island, Bangkok, and Singapore lead the way.

(The Beijinger)

WeChat Pay Usage Statistics

46. WeChat Pay has registered 900+ million monthly active users. 

This figure indicates WeChat Pay is an integral part of the Chinese lifestyle. Its closest competitor, Alipay, has 500 million active users. Apple Pay, one of the main WeChat competitors globally, has only 127 million users. 

(Payments Dive)

47. WeChat Pay is used by 93% of consumers engaging in offline purchases in tier 1 and 2 cities in China. 

WeChat Pay, the digital wallet service, first began playing catch up to Alipay, the market leader, in 2014. Its penetration in the urban market has been remarkable, with 44.5% of users claiming not having to carry cash is the primary reason for using WeChat Pay.

(China Channel)

48. Over 200 million bank cards in China are linked to WeChat Pay. 

WeChat stats show that its payment service is now so popular and widely used in China that cash has become virtually redundant in many cities. Almost all vendors, even local fruit sellers, now accept these methods.  

(TechCrunch)

49. Chinese tourists are driving WeChat Pay’s adoption in other countries. 

Over 70% of Chinese travelers’ mobile internet traffic in Korea took place on WeChat. And WeChat statistics by country also show that 20% of payments from Chinese tourists in Japan in 2017 were made via WeChat Pay. The average daily number of WeChat cross-border payments in 2019 noted a 76% YoY increase. 

(PR Newswire, Business of Apps, Bangkok Post)

50. WeChat Pay can now handle transactions in 13 different currencies in 25 countries and regions. 

Mainly with the aim of serving Chinese outbound tourists, WeChat Pay has established partnerships with a growing number of overseas merchants. WeChat Pay has also been gradually moving into European countries since 2015, joining the growing trend of cashless payments everywhere.

(China Channel)

51. Government services have seen the highest increase in the number of payments made with WeChat Pay.

Government services saw a 190% increase in the number of payments made with WeChat Pay. Healthcare (107%) and Education (80%) are also front runners. 

(Medium)

WeChat Revenue Statistics

52. WeChat drove RMB 333.9 billion in Chinese currency, covering travel, food, shopping, tourism, etc. 

It has had a tremendous social impact also, with about $50 billion in domestic consumption across a wide range of sectors moving through the platform. WeChat also contributed to the employment of 20.3 million people in 2017 only, more than double 2014’s figure, and WeChat-driven information consumption reached RMB 209.7 billion (approx. $30 billion) during the same period.

(WeChat Impact Report)

53. China accounted for more than 60% of the global user base for proximity mobile payments in 2018.  

Despite the rise of Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay, China remains the global leader in proximity mobile payment adoption rates. The high penetration, especially in urban areas, has given WeChat revenue a massive boost, as well as an enviable head start over its global competitors. 

(Emarketer)

54. 823 million people exchanged WeChat hongbao on Spring Festival 2019.  

Hongbao, the monetary gift in a red envelope traditionally given by elders as blessings to young ones on special occasions is fast turning completely cashless too. Based on WeChat statistics, on Spring Festival 2019, 823 million WeChat users sent or received money via WeChat’s hongbao service instead of handing over actual cash.

(Statista)

55. 41.2% of users from China prefer WeChat when paying for their insurance products. 

In a May 2018 survey of the most popular methods of payment when purchasing insurance products in China, 41.2% of respondents said that they use WeChat. This is next only to the 57% who prefer to use Alipay.

(Statista)

56. Over 40.3% of WeChat users donate to charity using the platform. 

It’s not just consumption that’s being driven by WeChat. One of the most socially relevant WeChat trends has been an increase in the number of users who are donating to charities using the platform. This figure reached 40.3% almost twice that of 2015. Many of these are people who wouldn’t otherwise donate to charity in the absence of such readily available avenues.

(CAICT)

FAQ

Source

• Statista
• Statista
• CNBC
• Walk the Chat
• Statista
• SimilarWeb
• Statista
• South China Morning Post
• Marketing to China
• China Internet Watch
• WeChat Wiki
• Harvard Business Review
• ZDNet
• InTheBlack
• TechNode
• Walk the Chat
• Business of Apps
• The Financial Brand
• Walk the Chat
• Forbes
• We Are Social
• TechNode
• China Daily
• Cast from Clay
• Walk the Chat
• Statista
• Statista
• Statista
• South China Morning Post
• Luxion
• Statista
• Medium
• Statista
• Walk the Chat
• China Internet Watch
• Statista
• Statista
• The Beijinger
• Payments Dive
• China Channel
• TechCrunch
• PR Newswire
• Bangkok Post
• China Channel
• Emarketer
• Statista
• Statista
• CAICT

By Branka Vuleta