WeChat User Demographics 2024

Any company wishing to do business in China should understand WeChat’s demographics. As a foreigner with a Masters degree on China from the London School of Economics who lived in the country for 4 years myself and continues to work with Chinese companies, I can personally attest to the app’s power. Today, I wish to give you a quick runthrough of this subject.

WeChat Total Active Users 2024

Let’s start with the basics. Every year, Tencent releases a short data report on WeChat’s user base. In this report, we find that WeChat now has 1.2 billion total active users. This is in stark contrast to when the app first launched in 2011. At the end of 2012, for example, the app had 500 million active users.

WeChat Monthly & Daily Active Users

This can be broken down too. According to Statista, the app has gone from below 400 million monthly users in 2013 to 1.3 billion at the end of 2023.

However, this data is quite different from what Tencent’s report on WeChat data states. In this report, the apps’s average monthly active users is actually 900 million. It could be that Statista confused monthly users with overall users, given that its 1.3 billion is closer to the 1.2 billion stated in Tencent’s report in regard to overall users. Perhaps Statista rounded up.

Lastly, Tencent’s report also provides some useful information related to WeChat’s daily active users. In 2023, the app had 1 billion active users.

WeChat Usage by Country

We should also be aware that WeChat is not only used in China. It is also used by many Chinese speakers outside of China and even people who do not speak Chinese who may have lived in China previously. If we look at the chart provided by worldpopulationreview.com, we can see that WeChat has a decent fan base outside of the country.

When it comes to WeChat’s usage just in China, some analysts have produced a chart showing WeChat’s projected user base up until the end of 2025.

WeChat Age Demographics

Age is an important factor to consider too. Apps get released at different times and because of this, get associated with particular age groups. 

WeChat is no different to this. Being released in 2011, it was one of the first major social apps to be made by a Chinese company for a primarily Chinese audience. This early market entry was a pivotal reason why it was capable of adding other features that led to it becoming an integral part of life in China.

At the same time as this, however, WeChat’s arrival back in 2011 has led to it being labeled by some as an “older app”. This does not mean that it has become a relic, but it is one reason younger generations in China prefer to have a different persona on WeChat over newer apps like Xiaohongshu.

There is some disagreement concerning the data surrounding WeChat’s general demographics. For example, Chinese website Zhihu has two separate charts on the matter. The account 大耳朵兔 published one on the site that shows that 25 to 30 year olds were a larger group than the under-24 group in 2022.

Another account published a chart that further broke down these numbers.

While we can safely say that the under-30s are the largest demographic using WeChat, Tencent’s data report states that 60% of WeChat’s users are under the age of 30. Neither of the two graphs above adds up to that amount. Tencent also says not even 10% of users are 40 or older. This also conflicts with the above two graphs. If Tencent’s data is true, that would mean 30% are between the ages of 30 and 40.

WeChat Senior Citizen Demographics

Data related to age can be broken down even further. Below is a chart related to how people over 50 in China use WeChat. 98.5% of smartphone users in China between 50 and 80 years old use the app. Think about this in comparison to how many in the same age group use WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger on their phones in Western countries. With the percent of senior citizens using WeChat in China being so much higher than the percent of senior citizens using similar apps in the United States or Great Britain, WeChat’s market power and peculiar role in the country becomes more evident.

The last point shown here is that 60% of people over the age of 60 in China use half of WeChat’s mobile data.

WeChat Gender Demographics

Now that we have covered age demographics, gender is another demographic to consider. One of the above articles has information on this too. As we can see, males make up 53.2% of WeChat’s regular users while women stand at 46.8%.

However, Tencent also published WeChat’s annual data report on Baidu, which disagrees with this data. In this report, it is shown that 51% of WeChat’s users are male while 49% are female.

Regardless of the exact percent, the data in both shows that males use WeChat more than females.

This is also in line with the data on general internet users in China. As you can see below, females make up 48.8% of China’s internet users while males make up 51.2%.

Keep in mind that China has a population of 1.409 billion overall.

WeChat Location Demographics

Location is important in any country, but given that China is a large and semi-developed country, this aspect of demographics is even more important.

China’s cities in the recent past have been divided into different tiers. There is no official definition in China explaining what places a city into each category, but it is generally agreed that the development of a city plays a major role. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, after all, have been in Tier 1 since the system’s establishment.

Below is a chart from one of the Zhihu articles that breaks down WeChat’s users by this tier system. As you can see, the majority of WeChat’s users exist outside of China’s Tier 1 cities. Cities in the New Tier 1  (新一线城市) and tier 3 (三线城市) categories are the largest groups.

WeChat User Activity Demographics

What about data related to how users interact with WeChat? WeChat has many different functions, each of which can be used by companies to interact with their customers. Some data can be found in Chinese on this.

For example, in Tencent’s recent data report, it was shown that 400 million WeChat users read official account articles every day. If we can believe Weibo’s article from 2021, this data suggests that this number has increased by 40 million from 360 million over the past 3 years.

However, we need to be skeptical of sources when it comes to data on WeChat. For example, this same Weibo article states that in 2021, 400 million WeChat users used the app’s Mini Programs every day. Meanwhile Tencent’s report states not only the same number for 2023 but that this was a 20% increase from 2022. Given that Tencent is the owner of WeChat, it’s better to accept their numbers. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out here that a lot of sources, both in English and Chinese, tend to lack information about their sources.

The recently published data report from Tencent gives an update on how WeChat users interact with Moments. In fact, in 2023, it was reported that 300 million WeChat users post to Moments every day and that 60% of what they post entails photos. Again, this data gives us reason to be skeptical of the Sina Weibo article. Tencent’s report for 2023 is almost 3 times the amount in Sina Weibo’s 2021 article. Could this huge change really occur in such a short period of time?

Regardless, this data reveals that Chinese citizens love to share with their friends online. Indeed, Tencent’s report explains that in 2023 alone, 670 billion articles were shared on the app and that the average WeChat user has around 150 friends.

Clearly, WeChat is very important to Chinese citizens. According to another source, the average WeChat user opens the app to look at their Moments 7 or more times a day.

Tencent’s report on WeChat also provided some interesting information concerning when WeChat users are the most active. It’s no surprise that the time people were on WeChat the most was between 7 and 9 AM and 9 and 11PM. These hours make sense because they are the hours most people commute to work or spend relaxing at home.

Lastly, the report stated that WeChat’s payment function had increased in usage by 15% compared to the previous year. 

WeChat Public Account Demographics

In the last section, I mentioned WeChat’s public accounts (公众号). The recent Tencent report also provided some useful information concerning these . At the end of 2023, there were approximately 20 million public accounts on the app that both users and brands alike use to communicate with others. The data report explained that users are following these accounts more every year, with the average user now following around 20.

WeChat User Demographics for Advertisers

If you are considering advertising a business on WeChat, there are a couple things to consider.

First, are you targeting people in China? Almost everybody in mainland China that uses the Internet, also uses WeChat. Most people that have family, friends, or business contacts in China also use WeChat. 

Next, unless you are a major consumer brand willing to spend millions of dollars per week, you will not be targeting most WeChat users. In fact, you will probably only be trying to target a fragment of WeChat users with the right demographics and interests.

If you ask us for help, we can help you choose a target market. This includes estimating the size of the market and cost to reach them.