Earlier this year, an executive order banning WeChat was
signed. The ban is temporarily delayed by the Justice department. The government
has increasingly looked to stop users in the US to use Chinese-owned apps including
TikTok and Wechat. The Department of Commerce moved to stop Google and Apple to
list the Wechat app in their app stores.
The Wechat app is widely used by people to communicate with not
only friends, but also family, colleagues, and customers. Families create family
chat groups on Wechat and use the app as their primary way of communication. It
is especially common for people to use the app to communicate with their
families overseas. The monthly active Wechat users in 2020 is close to 1.2
Billion.
It is interesting to see that the platform is used for communication
with both close personal connections as well as business communications. Colleagues
use Wechat chat groups to stay in touch and socialize. People also can use Wechat
to source customers and post apartments for example. It is a social communication
platform that is used by different age groups in China. Grandparents use Wechat
group chat to stay in touch with families spread across different cities or
countries.
References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/technology/wechat-ban-court.html
https://www.statista.com/statistics/255778/number-of-active-wechat-messenger-accounts/
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