(Chinese Version)

Nobody knows exactly when did Chinese people begin to check their WeChat once they were free, and when did people begin to feel anxious once they didn’t check their WeChat for a while, and when did people refer to WeChat public accounts to get the latest news, and when did people begin to pay via WeChat Wallet instead of by cash, and when did people begin to give WeChat Red Envelops to friends during festivals… Whether you are aware or not, WeChat has already become a necessary part of everyday Chinese life.

On May 13, 2015, Tencent, a leading provider of Internet services in China, announced the unaudited consolidated results for the first quarter of 2015 ended March 31, 2015 (“1Q2015”). TMTpost specially picked out the following seven key information out of Tencent’s report to help you better understand the influence of WeChat on everyday Chinese life:

1. 549 million MAU

Combined monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat reached 549 million at the end of the first quarter of 2015. WeChat is so popular that it is installed on over 90% smart phones in China. Moreover, WeChat’s users are not limited to Chinese but spread across over 200 countries and around 20 language areas.

2. Typical WeChat users are young and male

The male to female ratio among WeChat’s users is 1.8:1. The average age of WeChat’s users is 26 years old. 86.2% of WeChat’s users’ age range from 18 to 36 years old. Low average age of WeChat’s users allow WeChat’s user amount to remain stable in the long term.

The majority of WeChat’s users work in private enterprises, public sectors, or are self-employed, students. 80% of all Chinese high-net-worth individuals use WeChat, who are active subscribers of WeChat public accounts and use WeChat Wallet a lot.

3. 41.1% of followers use WeChat public accounts to get the latest news

According to the report, nearly 80% of WeChat’s users have subscribed to WeChat’s public accounts, among whom we media accounts’ followers take up 29.1%, media accounts’ followers 25.4%, enterprise accounts’ followers 18.9%, and marketing accounts’ followers 5.9%.

At the same time, 41.1% of WeChat public accounts’ followers use WeChat public accounts to get the latest news, 36.9% of all followers aims to enjoy the service of WeChat public accounts by following them, and 13.7% of followers want to learn more knowledge via WeChat public accounts.

4. 55.2% of WeChat’s users check WeChat over 10 times a day

WeChat’s services, including WeChat friends circle, public accounts, Red Envelope and Wallet, have become a necessary part of the life of many Chinese. In fact, 55.2% of WeChat’s users check WeChat over 10 times a day, while 25% of users check WeChat over 30 times a day.

Moreover, over half of WeChat’s active users have contact list of over 100 people. In addition, WeChat is used much more often compared to any other apps in China.

5. WeChat contributes to a large portion of mobile phones’ traffic

Since people check WeChat more often than they do on other apps on their smart phones, WeChat contributes to a large portion of mobile phones’ traffic. According to the official statistics, WeChat solely takes up more than 30% of mobile phones’ traffic for 40% of WeChat’s users, and contributes most to their daily traffic for nearly 30% of WeChat’s users.

6. Almost 50% of WeChat’s users have used WeChat stickers, and some of them are even willing to pay for stickers

Stickers sometimes can make conversations on WeChat more interesting and effective. According to the report, almost half of users have used WeChat stickers and 5.2% of users have even paid for stickers.

With the introduction of more and more WeChat stickers, they will certainly help people make their conversations on WeChat more interesting and effective.

7. WeChat has directly brought about millions RMB of spending in everyday life

More than 400 million WeChat users have opened their WeChat Wallet service. People can get access to more than 85,000 apps and 8 million marketing public accounts and shop online without stepping out of their houses.

The report suggests that WeChat has directly brought about 11 billion RMB of spending in everyday life, among which 53.6% is spent in entertainment (5.891 billion RMB), 20.0% in WeChat public accounts’ service, 13.2% in shopping, 11.3% in transportation, and 2.0% in food.

WeChat’s user engagement is deepened by providing access to local public services such as transportation, utilities, healthcare and municipal services on WeChat in major cities during Q1 2015. We have every confidence that WeChat will bring about more consumption on its platform in the future.

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[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @TMTpost, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at ECHO), working for TMTpost.