WeChat Most Popular App in China – A Breakdown Of The Most Popular Apps in China Per Category

The use of the mobile phone to access the internet has grown tremendously in China over the last decade. The penetration rate of mobile internet users in China was at an all-time high in 2020, making the apps marketplace one of the most competitive in the world. Data presented by TradingPlatforms.com breaks down the leading apps in China in 2020 per category.

Mobile Internet User Penetration Rate In China Almost 100% in 2020

Mobile internet penetration rate measures the percentage of internet users going online via mobile phones, and China’s rate has grown at an incredible pace in its recent history. In 2010, China’s mobile internet penetration rate reached a then all-time high of 66.2%. An impressive number at the time, considering the rate was only 39.5% two years prior. Fast forward ten years later to 2020 and China has reached an incredible penetration rate of 99.7%.

This translated to the number of mobile internet users in China increasing over 225% from 2010 to 2020 from an estimated 303M users to almost 986M users.

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Shopping, Blogging, Messaging, and News Apps Among Most Used Apps – WeChat Most Popular With over 1B MUA

The most popular messaging app in China, WeChat is also the most popular app overall based on Monthly Active Users(MUA.) As of December 2020, WeChat had just over a billion MUA in China or almost one-sixth of the country’s population. The Alibaba Group’s e-commerce platform, Taobao, was the most popular app overall in China as of Dec 2020 with an estimated 442M MUA making it the largest shopping app in China.

Microblogging is also popular in China and with the ban on Twitter in place since 2009, Sino-Weibo is the dominant app with over 326M MUA as of December 2020. The leading news apps in China also posted impressive MUA numbers with Tencent News registering almost 292M MUA as of March 2020. Its main competition is Toutiao which has an impressive MUA of 272M.

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Entertainment Apps Also Popular, TikTok’s Parent Company, Douyin, Has Over Half A Billion MUA

The global phenomenon that is the short video platform Tiktok is actually the international version of an app known as Douyin which originated and still continues to operate in China. Just like its international counterpart, the app is hugely popular in China with over 514M MUA as of December 2020.

Long-form online videos are still also popular with China’s leading online video app, Tencent video amassing over 394M MUAs as of December 2020. Tencent also dominates the music streaming apps category with the top three music streaming apps all owned by Tencent. The most popular is KuGou Music with just under 300M MUA.

The gaming apps category is also led by Tencent with the most popular gaming app, King of Glory which has over 170M MUA as of November 2020. Another form of entertainment that has grown more recently is the use of casual dating apps. In China, the most popular casual dating app is Momo which has over 52M MUA.

Fitness and Healthcare Apps Also Growing in Popularity

Awareness around fitness and health has increased all over the world including China allowing fitness apps to grow. The leading fitness app, Keep has over 13M MUA while three other fitness apps have over 5M MUA as of December 2020. The healthcare industry has also recently innovated in China and has gone digital even before the pandemic hit.

Over 10M MUA use the health care app Ping An Good Doctor, which allows users to book appointments online, participate in health-related forums and even attend real-time medical consultations. Cosmetic Surgery App SoYoung has also amassed over 3.3M MUA as of December 2020.