WeChat or Weixin in Chinese (Chinese: 微信; micro-message) is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world’s largest standalone mobile app in 2018 with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has been described as China’s “app for everything” and a super-app because of its wide range of functions. WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, mobile payment, sharing of photographs and videos and location sharing.
Accounts registered using Chinese phone numbers are managed under the Weixin brand, and their data is stored in mainland China and subject to Weixin’s terms of service and privacy policy, which forbids content which “endanger national security, divulge state secrets, subvert state power and undermine national unity”. Non-Chinese numbers are registered under WeChat, and WeChat users are subject to a different, less strict terms of service and stricter privacy policy, and their data is stored in the Netherlands for users in the European Union, and in Singapore for other users. User activity on Weixin, the Chinese version of the app, is analyzed, tracked and shared with Chinese authorities upon request as part of the mass surveillance network in China. Chinese-registered Weixin accounts censor politically sensitive topics. Any interactions between Weixin and WeChat users are subject to the terms of service and privacy policies of both services.
