WeChat in China

Discussions center on WeChat's extensive integration into daily life in China as an 'everything app' for messaging, payments, and services, and why no similar super-app exists in the West.

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Years Active
5
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#3024
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Keywords

forbes.com US youtu.be wikipedia.org QR WhatsApp GroupMe wechat.com HK WeChat wechat china chinese app chat whatsapp facebook chinese government apps messenger

Sample Comments

miguelrochefort Jul 17, 2017 View on HN

Why isn't there a WeChat equivalent in the west?

fmobus Apr 10, 2024 View on HN

WeChat does a lot more. You basically can't function in China without it

em-bee Jul 27, 2023 View on HN

it's wechat. you really need it in china. it's practically impossible to stay in touch with most people if you don't have it. a phone that can't run wechat is pretty useless.

ecshafer Jan 9, 2026 View on HN

China is ahead of the curve here, the one app is wechat.

thaumasiotes Feb 20, 2014 View on HN

In China, it seems to be Wechat. I had never heard of WhatsApp.

justinhj Dec 13, 2016 View on HN

I don't think it's a joke. Wechat is a highly usable app, but more importantly it is integrated with many parts of Chinese life so you use it for many things. Perhaps most importantly of all it made headway into getting people to trust online payments in China. It's not perfect but it is ahead of Facebook in some respects

lacker Sep 19, 2018 View on HN

WeChat works just fine in the US. Facebook Messenger, a very similar product, is completely banned in China. In a fair environment, people could try out both of these apps and pick the one they liked better.

Bakary Jun 22, 2017 View on HN

The Chinese can do without Apple easily, but they cannot do without WeChat. It is far more integrated into society than Facebook ever was. Not having a Facebook account will get you weird looks in the West but not having WeChat will make people stare at you in disbelief unless you are a foreigner or very old.

est Jan 12, 2023 View on HN

China runs on Wechat. Including the govn't

Thriptic Jan 14, 2019 View on HN

Iirc this is done in China with Wechat