Tencent’s WeChat App Keeps Growing Despite Beijing Crackdown

The Tencent Holdings Ltd. WeChat app is displayed in the App Store on a smartphone in an arranged photograph taken in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., on Aug. 7, 2020.

(Bloomberg) — 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.

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