WeChat: social and political development of China’s dominant messaging app

Abstract

This article traces the development of the Chinese social media app WeChat from its origins to its current role as a leading communications tool for some 600 million Chinese citizens. It analyzes the ways the small-group oriented app is changing China’s social connections, as it enhances trusted, personal contacts while transforming opportunities for larger online group formation. The article assesses methods the Chinese Government employs to monitor and control WeChat communication, and provides a case-focus study. It also considers the apolitical features, in particular, those related to entertainment and personal social relations, which have made important contributions to WeChat’s great popularity.

Keywords:

• app
• China
• censorship
• Internet
• politics
• social media
• WeChat
• weibo
• weixin

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Ye Yiqun, Liu Mengxin, Yan Xiangshan, and Manca Sustarsic for research assistance with this article, and an anonymous reviewer for revision suggestions.

Notes

1. This discussion of WeChat’s early development is based on Zhou (2012).

2. For consistency, this article will refer to the service as WeChat, even though in its early stages it was known only as “Weixin,” and it is still called by this name in China.

3. Author’s translation.

4. The following discussion is based on the author’s research and use of WeChat beginning in Beijing in July, 2014 and in the subsequent period up to publication.

5. A student at Peking University reported knowing of one subscriber who was able to make an online purchase for 20 yuan (about $3) of a group size of 150 members (personal communication with a Chinese scholar, July 2014).

6. For a detailed discussion of Chinese domestic Internet censorship, see MacKinnon (2008).

7. The LinkedIn page for CLC was retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/company/china-legal-career?trk=prof-following-company-logo

8. My translation.

9. For more information on FireChat, see the American company Open Garden’s web site at http://opengarden.com/faq