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WeChat users spend more time than Facebook users but not on brand pages

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By Danielle Long | Acting APAC Editor

April 25, 2017 | 3 min read

WeChat users are spending more time on the messaging app each day but they are not engaging with official brand accounts.

WeChat users spend more than four hours per day on the messaging app

One third of WeChat’s 889.3 million monthly active users spend more than four hours per day on the messaging app, according to figures from the China Tech Insights Report.

The report, which collated data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and Penguin Intelligence, found this group has more than doubled in one year, up from 16.3% in 2015 to reach 33.9% in 2016.

In a further display of the sticky nature of WeChat, 18.1% of WeChat users spend between two and four hours per day on the app, while 21% are on the app for between one and two hours.

The average daily time spent on WeChat has also increased in 2016, climbing over one hour to total 66 minutes. This is more than Facebook, which last year reported its average daily user time was 55 minutes.

However, while users are spending more time on WeChat they are not following official accounts for brands or companies. Only 1.8% of WeChat’s official accounts, which are estimated to total more than 10 million, attract more than 1 million followers. However, this is an increase on 2015 when just 1.1% of official accounts broke the million mark for followers. The majority of official accounts have less than 10,000 followers.

Brands are beginning to monetise official accounts, with 10.4% generating more than 10% of their sales revenue through WeChat. However, only 15% of consumers claim to have purchased a product through an official account.

Mobile payments, such as WeChat Pay, remain the most popular offline payment method with 92% of users. Less than 50% use cash and less than 30% choose debit or credit cards.

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