Tencent’s WeChat app keeps growing despite Beijing crackdown

Daily active users of WeChat mini-programs – lite apps within the main social media and messaging platform – grew about 12.5% to 450 million in 2021, Tencent executives said. — Reuters

Tencent Holdings Ltd’s WeChat super app managed remarkable growth in services from e-commerce to payments and search over the past year, defying a government crackdown that sought to tear down barriers within China’s Internet arena.

Daily active users of WeChat mini-programs – lite apps within the main social media and messaging platform – grew about 12.5% to 450 million in 2021, Tencent executives said during the WeChat annual event Thursday. The app’s native search function – a feature once touted as Tencent’s answer to Baidu Inc’s dominance – added 200 million monthly users over the past year, they added.