WeChat is far more than just a messaging app. With over 1.5 billion monthly active users, it is an indispensable part of daily life for people in China and increasingly overseas.
In this up-to-date blog post spanning over 2600 words, we delve into the latest WeChat statistics related to users, usage, monetization and more. Analysis includes breakdowns of usage habits, ecommerce adoption, advertising, WeChat Pay merchant coverage and internatonal expansion plans.
WeChat User Base Continues Strong Growth
As of 2023, over 1.5 billion people log into WeChat every month. This is up from 1.3 billion at the end of 2021 – representing stunning 16% year-on-year growth.
Source: Tencent Investor Presentations
Daily active users also continue to climb, now at 1.35 billion up from 1.29 billion in late 2022.
In China, WeChat penetration remains unrivalled, used by 85% of smartphone users. This underlines its indispensable nature for everyday life in China.
Source: WalktheChat
Overseas expansion continues steadily too. There are now approximately 230 million international WeChat users compared to 214 million in 2021, spanning over 200 countries.
While Mainland China remains its stronghold, WeChat is gaining adoption elsewhere including in Chinese expatriate communities.
Deep Dive into WeChat‘s Very Engaged User Base
With over a billion monthly actives, who exactly are WeChat‘s users? And how engaged are they in using WeChat‘s plethora of features? We crunch the numbers:
By Age Group
78% of internet users between 16-64 years use WeChat in China. Crucially given working age demographic trends, adoption remains very strong even amongst younger users:
- 16-24 years – 88% are WeChat users
- 25-35 years – 92% are users
Additionally, 55% of Chinese internet users over 55 years old now use WeChat.
This demonstrates the app‘s broad appeal across age groups given its multifaceted utility.
By Gender
Earlier in its history WeChat saw higher adoption amongst males. Today however its user base is much more balanced:
- Male users – 55%
- Female users – 45%
As social sharing and commerce features expanded, WeChat has increased its appeal to women. Brands are able to finely target audiences by gender.
Urban vs Rural Users
Urban users continue to represent the majority of WeChat‘s user base:
- Urban users – 62%
- Rural users – 38%
However rural penetration is rising fast (35% in 2021) thanks to mobile internet proliferation. Given China‘s vast rural population, this represents a major growth opportunity.
Time Spent Each Day
On average, WeChat users spend 90 minutes per day actively using the app. This underlines the incredibly strong engagement levels when compared to other social/messaging apps globally.
For context, average daily engagement per user is just 30 minutes for Facebook, and 23 minutes on Snapchat.
Messaging and social features have allowed WeChat to retain user attention over long periods. Additional services continue to boost this stickiness.
Source: Tencent Investor Presentation 2022
Next let‘s analyse trends in how these engaged users are spending time on WeChat.
Shifting Trends in Messaging, Social, Mini Programs and Payments
While text and voice messaging remains a key draw, WeChat engagement and monetization is shifting beyond just messaging features.
Still Enormous Messaging Volumes
Daily messaging interactions continue to rise steadily:
- 60+ billion messages sent daily on WeChat in 2024
- Up from 55 billion daily in 2022
- CAGR of 5% from 2020
Video calls also continue growing rapidly. 450 million video calls are now made per day using WeChat‘s built in video chat.
Messaging still makes up the largest share of time spend on WeChat. However this is gradually declining as other features gain traction.
Social Sharing via Moments
Photo and video sharing is massively popular on WeChat Moments. 750 million people view their WeChat Moments feed every day.
On average Moments users open the feature 14 times per day – underlining the stickiness for social connections.
80% of users actively post or engage with Moments content, making it nearly as popular as messaging interactions.
Mini Programs Reach Critical User Mass
WeChat Mini Programs are now used by over 800 million people per month up from 600 million in 2021.
These ‘lite apps‘ span categories like retail, delivery, transportation, entertainment and more. Adoption continues to surge thanks to convenience and smooth integration.
On average, mini program users have 9 mini apps installed at a time – up from 5 per user in 2020.
Source: Tech Node (Tencent Q3 2022 Earnings)
Payments Behavior Sees Landmark Shifts
Major changes in payments and financial behaviors are also underway thanks to WeChat Pay.
850 million people now have WeChat Pay connected to their bank account, credit or debit card. This represents 67% of monthly active users, andalmost doubled from 2021.
As this critical mass adopts WeChat Pay, usage frequency has responded accordingly:
- 1.5 billion daily payment transactions on WeChat Pay
- Up 15% from 1.3 billion transactions in 2021
- Demonstrating gradual shifts away from cash
With messaging engagement stabilizing, these newer features will be key monetization drivers going forward.
Thriving Ecommerce and M-Commerce Adoption via Mini Programs
As part of Tencent‘s "connection plan", WeChat continues to push growth of ecommerce through the app – particularly via Mini Programs.
We break down the booming ecommerce ecosystem inside WeChat Mini Programs.
5 Million Mini Programs for Shopping
There are now over 5 million Mini Programs focused on ecommerce on the WeChat platform.
These span categories from fashion and cosmetics, food delivery services, travel bookings, and electronic goods.
Rapid growth continues with 2 million new ecommerce Mini Programs added in 2022 alone.
Top stores are seeing enormous user numbers in the hundreds of millions via WeChat presence. For example COLLAZOLLA Mini Program has over 200 million users.
Shopping Habits Shift as Users Embrace Mini Programs
These ecommerce centric Mini Programs are seeing massive adoption from consumers.
The number of WeChat users making purchases via Mini Programs doubled in 2022. This landmark engagement shift is backed up by recent usage habit data:
- 68% have used Mini Programs for online shopping
- 57% for food delivery services
- 48% for travel bookings
They offer a smooth, app-like shopping experience while avoiding needing to install yet another shopping app.
Average User Spend Increases
Thanks to rising engagement and purchase frequency, average spending per WeChat user is growing rapidly:
- Average spend in 2021 – RMB 2600
- Average spend in 2022 – RMB 3250
That‘s 25% year-on-year growth in dollar terms.
As ecommerce booms on WeChat, Tencent will need to foster trust in product quality and handle counterfeit risks. But overall WeChat shopping is hitting an inflection point with transformative business potential.
Advertising Landscape and Opportunities on WeChat
While ecommerce and payments offer direct revenue streams, advertising remains vital for WeChat generating over $10 billion annually.
Let‘s analyze WeChat‘s ad products and performance benchmarks for marketers.
Ad Formats on Offer
Like other social and messaging platforms, WeChat enables a range of native ad formats attractively integrated into user workflows.
Major options include:
- WeChat Moments ads
- Official Account news feed ads
- Mini Program ads e.g app launch promotion
- Game gifting ads
- WeChat search ads
Additionally, brands can work with Key Opinion Leader accounts and influencers to tap into their extensive follower bases.
This diversity of ad inventory offers marketers numerous options to engage different audiences.
Advertising CPM and CPC Benchmarks
Cost metrics are competitive compared to other leading mobile and social platforms.
- Average CPM – RMB 25-75
- Average CPC – RMB 4-15
Effective CPMs for Mini Program ads in particular can range from RMB 100-250 thanks to strong conversion potential.
For context, average CPMs on Facebook are now over $11 while TikTok has an average CPM near $10 now.
Ad Spend Projections Show Strong Growth
WeChat ad spend saw 26% year-on-year growth in 2022 to reach $11 billion as brands increase activity.
This growth is projected to continue with ad spend forecasts of:
- 2023 – $13.5 billion
- 2024 – $16 billion
Source: eMarketer
With advanced targeting options by location, interests and behaviors, WeChat ads can offer strong ROI to marketers. Spend is expected to follow user base and engagement growth over coming years.
Analyzing Explosive Growth for WeChat Pay Merchant Coverage
Enabling payments via WeChat Pay is also vital for driving merchant revenue and transactions.
Let‘s crunch the numbers on merchant adoption of WeChat Pay:
14 Million Merchant Accounts on WeChat Pay
As of 2023 there are over 14 million merchants registered to accept WeChat Pay – from street vendors and convenience stores to luxury brands.
Acceleration of merchant signups continues with over 3 million new merchant accounts added in 2022.
Coverage spans both physical retail locations via QR codes as well as natively in Mini Programs stores.
Dominates Mobile Payment Transactions
Thanks to rising merchant acceptance, WeChat Pay‘s share of fast growing mobile payments market continues to increase.
- 67% market share of mobile payments
- Up from 61% market share in 2021
- Equivalent to over 1.5 billion daily transactions
Alipay is closest competitor processing around 1 billion mobile transactions daily.
Transaction Values Reflect Retail Mix
Average transaction size on WeChat Pay varies across merchant categories:
- High value purchases e.g luxury, electronics, travel bookings – RMB 650+
- Mass market retail – RMB 150-200 range
As higher value industries expand adoption, Tencent‘s total payment transaction value should steadily rise over coming years.
International Expansion Plans and Challenges
While China accounts for majority of users and revenue currently, Tencent has global ambitions to grow WeChat‘s footprint.
International markets offer additional revenue potential as WeChat aims for 2 billion worldwide users long term.
Target International Markets
Main target regions for user acquisition are:
- Southeast Asia – young demographics and fast adoption of consumer apps
- US & Europe – Chinese expatriate communities
- India – Huge addressable audience despite geopolitical tensions
Tencent assigns 30% of its capex budget to overseas WeChat expansion per latest financial filings.
Localization and Partnership Strategies
In international markets WeChat relies more heavily on partnerships with payment providers, content creators and celebrity influencers.
Localization initiatives like Thailand-centric emojis andregion-specific content recommendations also help drive retention.
India growth plans center around gaming integration. However regulatory blocks have hampered progress here.
Major Regulatory Obstacles
Beyond India where WeChat is outright banned, major global growth barriers revolve around data and censorship concerns.
- US has raised national security concerns over Tencent‘s close association with Chinese government authorities and data sharing policies.
- EU is similarly increasing scrutiny of user data handling under GDPR rules. Fines have already been issued to TikTok.
Managing these regulatory and data privacy challenges will be pivotal for WeChat to fulfill global ambitions long term. But with 1.5 billion existing users to monetize – predominantly in China – international ultimately offers upside rather than an urgent commercial priority.
Wrapping Up Key WeChat Milestones andMetrics
- 1.5 billion MAUs – indispensable utility for work, life and leisure
- 90 minutes average daily engagement highlights extreme stickiness
- 60 billion+ messages sent daily ; 14 Moments sessions per user per day
- 800 million using Mini Programs monthly – reaching critical mass
- 850 billion WeChat Pay users; 67% of user base adoption
- 14 million merchants accept WeChat Pay; 67% market share of mobile payments
- Over $13 billion estimated WeChat ad spend in 2024
- Majority of social and commerce behaviors now happening on WeChat
As this in-depth analysis shows, WeChat has evolved far beyond a messaging app. It is now an integrated indispensable platform on which Chinese people spend vast amounts of time messaging, viewing content, shopping and paying digitally.
New growth frontiers exist in rural regions and international expansion. But even retaining current high engagement levels offers many years of strong monetization potential across ecommerce, payments and advertising with Tencent.
WeChat has reached a tipping point to fundamentally transform consumer behaviors and enterprise operations – uniquely positioning Tencent as the ‘necessary interface‘ between the two in a mobile-first world.
