WeChat still fails to gain market share abroad

There has been much fuss about WeChat trying to export itself outside mainland China. And so far it has failed to do so.

Top-performing regions for WeChat outside mainland China

So, where is WeChat doing well outside mainland China? You might not have expected it: the #1 country is… Buthan.

If you know a bit about geography, you know there is something troubling for WeChat about this picture. Let’s look at the population numbers for the top 3 regions on this list:

• Bhutan: 770,000 inhabitants (2015 census)
• Macau: 643,100 inhabitants (2015 census)
• Turkmenistan: 4,751,120 inhabitants (2015 census)
• Total: 6,164,220 inhabitants

That’s it: the sum of the populations of these 3 regions doesn’t reach the population of an average tier 1 city in mainland China.

AppAnnie data from May 2016 confirms this list, with Bhutan, Macau, Malaysia and Laos being the only 4 areas having WeChat among their top-10 download list on iOS.

WeChat performance in Africa

Tencent has been very vocal about promoting its messaging applications in Africa, especially in South Africa. However, data would suggest that performance is mostly disappointing.

Analysis of Google trends in South Africa show WeChat being overwhelmingly dominated by WhatsApp.

Although WeChat has seen some recent growth of interest in some African countries such as Mozanbique, it is still lagging far behind its Western competitors

Conclusion

Despite consistent efforts and claims to get a foothold outside mainland China, and an important push of WeChat Pay abroad, WeChat is not making a dent into the monopoly of Whatsapp and Facebook messenger abroad.

WeChat can however be used abroad in one niche case: it remains the number 1 medium in order to reach Chinese tourists while they travel.