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.

In this post, we’re rounding up the most recent WeChat stats available so you can get a better idea of its potential — even more so for the international businesses that are marketing in China.

How Many Users Does WeChat Have? – WeChat User Statistics

How Do Users Spend Time On WeChat? – WeChat Usage Statistics

• About 360 million users read Official Account articles. Additionally, 120 million post updates on Moments, while 500 million users take advantage of Mini Programs daily.

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

• WeChat Moments receive about 10 billion hits every 24 hours. Current WeChat data reveals that 61% of WeChat users check their Moments every time they open the app. Each Moment user checks their app a minimum of 10 times a day.
  
• 45 billion messages are sent daily by WeChat users. Out of these, 205 million are video messages. 6.1 billion voice messages are also sent daily on WeChat.

• Compared to the 41 minutes spent on Facebook, WeChat users spend 66 minutes everyday on WeChat. The platform also has an impressive 7-day retention ratio of 98.3%.
  
• WeChat has a very high engagement rate with over 60% of users opening the app more than ten times a day. Another 21% use the app over 50 times a day.

WeChat Demographic Statistics

• Chinese elderly population likes WeChat. Chinese internet users that are over 50 years old like using WeChat. Even at their age, 98.5% of the surveyed users reported having no problems using the messaging feature.

• 13.7% of WeChat users are between 25 and 30 years old. 42% of users are over 41 years old. 

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

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

• 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.

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

• Of all the WeChat users, 64.3% are male whereas 35.7% of the users are females.

• As per an April 2021 report, Hong Kong accounts for 15.94% of the WeChat site’s traffic. This is followed by the US, which accounts for 13.16% of the traffic.

WeChat Mini Program Statistics

• The daily active users on WeChat Mini Programs reached 450 million according to WeChat official data in January 2022. The transaction volume of catering, tourism, and retail increased by 100% year-on-year. Mini Program DAU reached 500 million as of Q1 2022. The number of Mini Program developers has exceeded 3 million.

• People on WeChat use an average of 9.8 Mini Programs –  sub-applications that are less than 10MB. According to WeChat usage stats, 47% of these users find food delivery and ecommerce Mini Programs more valuable than other apps. Their usage further increases by 53% during weekends.

• WeChat has over 1 million Mini Programs.

• As per a 2020 survey, at least 100 million users said that they used WeChat Mini Programs to make at least one purchase.
  
• 67% of WeChat ecommerce Mini Program users are female.
  
• The average user engages with nearly 10 Mini Programs.

• 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.

WeChat For Business Statistics

• Over 34% of WeChat Official Account owners agree that the app helps to cut costs – by more than 30%.
  
• 74.2% of WeChat Official Account users use it to get news and promote their business. Entrepreneurs and businesses use WeChat to earn money, and the Official Accounts are a great way to do it.

• 90% of more than 20,000 surveyed web users in China consider the app their top choice for daily work communication. 70% of the Chinese people use WeChat instead of email to communicate.

• There are 20 million active WeChat Official Accounts used to promote content, attract followers, and connect the account to a mini-site hosted within WeChat. 

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

• 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.

WeChat Search Statistics

• The number of monthly active users of WeChat search has reached 700 million according to WeChat official data released in January 2022.

• WeChat search staff said that in the mobile Internet era, search should not be limited by the search box, but need to be accessible by touch. Users can search while chatting.

• WeChat search will screen out the high-quality content of WeChat and produce a more accurate connection with users.

• In the future, it can expand the search scope to the whole internet-based on the needs of users. The search results are currently mostly provided by WeChat Official Account and Sogou.

WeChat Pay Statistics

In January 2022, WeChat shared the latest progress on WeChat Pay:

• 23 thousand monthly service providers
• Over 10 million merchants
• More than 1800 banks and Payment institutions
• 23 thousand monthly merchants
• In the next three years, WeChat Pay will continue to carry out digital upgrading of WeStore, with a planned investment of more than 10 billion yuan

As a digital wallet service, WeChat Pay has had a remarkable breakthrough in the urban market. Almost 45% of users prefer to use WeChat Pay over carrying cash!

References –

1. https://99firms.com/blog/wechat-statistics/
2. https://techjury.net/blog/wechat-statistics/
3. https://startupbonsai.com/wechat-statistics/