9 Powerful WeChat Statistics You Need to Know in 2022

This article was last updated in December 2021.

Are you planning to expand your business into the Chinese market? You’re going to need a strategy that largely revolves around WeChat marketing, focused on WeChat users.

Here are some interesting WeChat statistics that will help you understand just how powerful this platform is. After all, nothing beats concrete proof, right? So, before you go ahead and formulate your WeChat marketing strategy, we would strongly recommend that you check out these statistics regarding WeChat users, demographics, market share, and more.

Source: Medium

1. How many active users does WeChat have?

WeChat has over 1.225 billion monthly active users. [Source: Tencent 2020 Fourth Quarter Results]

Originally launched by Tencent in January 2011 in China as a messaging app called Weixin, WeChat has grown by leaps and bounds. It went on to become an integral part of people’s lives helping them connect with friends and family through text messages, voice, and video calls.

In 2012, it was rebranded as WeChat for the international market. However, in China, it continues to exist as Weixin. As of December 2020, the combined monthly active users of Weixin and WeChat grew to 1.225 billion, up 5% year-on-year. A whopping 45 billion messages are exchanged on WeChat every day.

Rise in the number of monthly active WeChat users from Q2 2011 to Q4 2020 [Source: Statista]

However, WeChat isn’t limited to just being a messaging app. It also allows you to read news, play games, shop, share glimpses of your life, read interesting articles, make payments, book a cab, and so much more. The immense popularity of this platform is the force that drives countless brands to invest heavily in WeChat marketing.

2. What are WeChat’s User Demographics?

Almost 40% of WeChat Users are Between 25 and 35 Years of Age and. 42.8% of users are female, while 57.2% of accounts are male. [Source: Statista]

Out of the total WeChat users in China, 25% belong to the age group of 25 to 30 years while another 13.8% of users are aged between 31 and 35 years. However, the largest age demographic (33.5%) is composed of users below 24 years.

This is closely followed by users over 41 years who constitute 19.1% of the total. So, if your business caters to these audience segments, WeChat marketing might be extremely beneficial for you.

Distribution of WeChat Users according to age groups. [Source: Statista]

3. How many American companies use WeCom (WeChat Work)?

88% of American Companies Use WeCom to Communicate with Employees in China. [Source: Statista]

Okay, so what’s WeCom (previously WeChat Work)? It’s an evolved version of this all-in-one communications app suitable for businesses to communicate with their employees and customers. Think: an end-to-end enterprise version of WeChat.

Enterprises can use it to share important announcements with their employees, manage time and attendance, manage tasks, create reports, and a whole lot more. Employees can even make work-related calls that are billed to the company and send and receive emails using the app. The app integrates with multiple other third-party apps for accounting, workflow management, HR operations, CRM, and so on.

However, the best part about WeCom is that it allows companies to connect with their prospects and customers more personally. They can send personalized product or service recommendations to prospects based on their browsing history. They can even send them service reminders or product information and resolve their queries or issues through the platform.

In 2019, Tencent launched a new update to the app which included integration with WeChat Moments and productivity tools to help businesses connect with and retain customers more efficiently.

The popularity of this communication platform continued to grow amid the pandemic as it continued to enable enterprises to engage with their clients effectively. WeCom has more than 130 million monthly active users today and serves over 5.5 million businesses.

4. How many people use WeChat Mini Programs?

WeChat Mini Programs Have Over 400 Million Daily Active Users [Source: Tencent].

Launched in January 2017, Mini Programs are certain sub-applications within WeChat that enable users to access third-party service providers related to food, education, travel, tickets, and so on.

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The main advantage to users is that they don’t need to install separate applications for each of these. WeChat Mini Programs allow users to access these services from within the app and exit them after use in a seamless manner. Tencent also features vertical Mini Programs for mobility, healthcare, and smart retail services via Weixin Pay entry points.

No wonder that over 400 million people use Mini Programs daily causing total sales (GMV) to more than double in 2020 (compared to the previous year). Also, the average number of Mini Programs used per person increased by 25% and the average transaction value went up 67% year-on-year.

Live streaming seems to be the most popular WeChat Mini Program function among retailers in China with 47% of merchants using it in 2020. AI shopping assistance (used by 35% of merchants) and digital membership cards (used by 32% of merchants) are some of the other popular functions.

The most popular WeChat Mini Program functions among Chinese retailers. Source [Statista]

5. How many official accounts do most WeChat users follow?

Almost 50% of WeChat users follow between 10 and 20 Official Accounts [Source: Statista].

Official Accounts provide businesses a means to interact with their customers and prospects, share content, promote their products and services, and make sales. They’re the equivalent of Facebook Pages. Brands can leverage them to increase their visibility, grow followers, send them notifications, and redirect them to their website or product pages.

Official Accounts have been immensely beneficial to businesses and have provided them with a low-cost tool for marketing their products and services. As per the latest data, over 80% of WeChat users access Official Accounts.

On average, users spend 77 minutes daily on WeChat, and more than half of them spend 10-30 minutes of this on browsing Official Accounts. Also, compared to regular WeChat users, Official Accounts users are younger and have greater online consumption capacity in Tier 2 cities and above.

6. How many users does WeChat Pay have?

87% of consumers in China use WeChat Pay for online payments [Source: Statista].

Following closely on the heels of Alipay, WeChat Pay is the second most popular online payment provider in China. As of July 2020, WeChat Pay had a user share of 87%.

The service is equally popular among women and men. The largest segment of its users (34%) is in the age group of 25-34 years while the next biggest segment (28%) consists of people aged 35-44 years.

Most popular online payment brands in China. [Source: Statista]

WeChat Pay includes rich features such as face payment, QR code scanning for purchases, smart operation, and integration with e-commerce Mini Programs. This makes it much more effective and efficient as a retail industry solution.

In 2020, WeChat Pay introduced a new feature called Zhifufen which enables e-commerce businesses to process payments after delivery and faster refunds. This helped them boost their conversion rates by 14%. Zhifufen is all set to integrate with Zhuanzhuan (a marketplace for second-hand products) and the WeStore Mini Program in 2021.

It’s possible WeChat will continue to roll out new WeChat mini programs and additions as the years go by. There’s no better time to get in than now.

7. What is WeChat’s Market Share?

With over 1 billion active users, WeChat probably accounts for around 10-15% of the social media market. But in China, WeChat is likely the most used social platform, and accounts for 34% of China’s total data traffic [Source: Walk the Chat]. 

No other app has this kind of dominance in such a large market anywhere else in the world. For comparison, Facebook only accounts for 14.1% of the traffic in North America. WeChat accounts for more than double that in China.

8. What is WeChat’s Revenue?

In 2020, WeChat made 108.2 billion RMB in revenue. They collected 82.3 billion RMB in 2019 and 72.7 billion RMB in 2018. [Source: Tencent].

We don’t yet know what WeChat made in 2021, but with their continuous innovation, it’s likely their revenue increased yet again. The Chinese messenger facilitated 1.6 trillion RMB in annual transactions through its mini-programs this year. If this is any indication at the rise in revenue attributed to their mini-programs, they’ve had a great year.

9. How Many Daily Messages Are Sent on WeChat?

Around 50 billion messages are sent every single day through WeChat. In 2019, 45 billion daily messages were sent. [Source: ZDNet].

That’s a lot of daily messages. It might not be quite as many as Facebook handles daily, but considering its predominantly used in only one country – that’s a great deal of activity.

Final Thoughts on WeChat Statistics

The statistics mentioned above are pretty impressive and illustrate just how powerful WeChat has turned out to be. So, if you still haven’t considered integrating it into your overall marketing strategy, it’s high time that you start doing so.

Can you think of any other interesting WeChat statistics we might have missed out on? Share them with us in the comments below.

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