China has an impressive array of homegrown social media platforms. To help you quickly understand fifteen of the most important ones, we created this handy table for you. There are links to more information below as well.

WeChat QQ Weibo Douyin Toutiao Kuaishou Little Red Book
Owner Tencent Alibaba ByteDance Private, 19% Tencent shares Private
Launched 2012 1999 2009 2016 2012 2011 2013
MAU (Q3/24) 1.3 billion 571 million 588 million 750 million 356 million 619 million 312 million
USP in China Largest (social) app. Messenger everybody uses. Messaging app Top microblogg-ing app Favorite short video app Leading news app Popular short video app with a different crowd Top lifestyle app
Messenger x x x x x x x
Short video x x x x x x x
Live streaming x x x x x
Popular for news x x x x x
Strong e-commerce feature x x x x
Who you connect with mostly Friends, colleagues, public (on Channels/videos) Friends, online friends Public Public Hardly anybody Public Public
Video tour Tour Tour Tour Tour Tour Tour Tour
Closest Western equivalent Instagram, Facebook, Email newsletter, WhatsApp, PayPal, Instagram Reels ICQ X, Tumblr TikTok Google News TikTok Instagram, Pinterest
Tier cities Tier 1 – 3 Tier 2 – 3 Tier 1 – 3 New Tier 1 and lower Tiers Tier 2 – 3 New Tier 1 and lower Tiers Tier 1 – 3
Focus age All ages Under 25 Under 30 18 – 45 25 – 35 25 – 44 18 – 35
Gender 52% male 53% male 51% female 52% male 55% male 56% male 79% female
Suggested for  All industries Gaming, Entertain-ment, Tech, Education Beauty, luxury, fashion, lifestyle, entertain-

ment

Beauty, cosmetics, fashion, F&B, e-commerce, lifestyle News, media, education, tech, automotive E-commerce, agriculture, lifestyle, tech Beauty, cosmetics, luxury, fashion, lifestyle,

travel, parenting, education


——- Part 2 ——-

Bilibili Zhihu Dianping Douban Momo Tieba Douyu MaiMai
Owner Private, 13% Tencent shares Private, 12% Tencent shares Meituan Private Hello Group Inc Baidu Private, 38% Tencent shares Private
Launched 2009 2011 2003 2005 2011 2003 2012 2013
MAU (Q3/24) 336 million 81 million 149 million 60 million 60 million 300 million 45 million 120 million
USP in China Favorite video app Leading Q&A app Main  local business review app Popular app for reviews of books, movies, etc. Favorite dating app Main forums &  discussion community Top gaming/ e-sports streaming app Job & networking app
Messenger x x x x x x x x
Short video x x
Live streaming x x
Popular for news
Strong e-commerce feature x
Who you connect with mostly Public Public Local businesses and reviewers Public People to date Public Public Recruiters, job seekers, HR
Video tour Tour Tour Tour Tour
Closest Western equivalent YouTube Quora Yelp Goodreads, Letterboxd Tinder, Bumble Reddit Twitch LinkedIn
Tier cities Tier 1 – 3 Tier 1 – 2 Tier 1 – 2 Tier 1 – 2 Tier 2 – 3 Tier 1 Tier 2 – 3 Tier 1 – 2
Focus age 18 – 35 Over 30 Under 30 18 – 35 Under 32 16 – 24 Under 24 25 – 34
Gender 51% female 59% female 50% female 52% female 51% male 75% male 71% male 75% male
Suggested for  Gaming, tech, fashion, streetwear, education Tech, education, finance, healthcare F&B, hospitality, lifestyle, retail Books, film, music, arts, niche lifestyle Entertain-

ment, dating, gaming, personal care, fitness

Gaming, anime, pop culture, tech, education Gaming, esports, tech, lifestyle Recruiting, education, tech, finance, B2B

WeChat

WeChat is the most-used social media platform in China. Everybody uses it for messaging. It is one of the most popular payment apps. The Moments feed is the closest thing to a Facebook friend feed. Brands can create Official Accounts to share long-form articles, communicate with customers, run stores or other mini-apps. There is nothing else in the world quite like WeChat.

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QQ

QQ is a relic from the past that found new life with young Chinese. They socialize on QQ because it’s a bit more private, and their parents probably aren’t on it.

Note that QQ email addresses are separate from the app, and still very popular, similar to gmail.

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Weibo

“Weibo” means “microblog”. It’s a lot like X in terms of functionality. However, while X offers the free-est speech of all Western apps, Weibo still needs to adhere to Chinese government regulations.

It’s a popular place to learn about what’s happening right now, as well as celebrity news.

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Douyin

Douyin is THE short video app. TikTok is the foreign version of Douyin, and they are both owned by the same company.

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Toutiao

Toutiao is a news app. Users receive news, mostly in text and image format. It’s debatable whether it should be called a “social” app because the social features are used less than for other media in this list.

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Kuaishou

Kuaishou is a short video app that looks somewhat like Douyin.

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Little Red Book

Little Red Book is a place for people to learn how to improve their lives with bite-sized pieces of content. Users share “notes” composed of text and images as well as short vertical videos. For content marketing, we use it heavily. It is our second most-recommended social app next to WeChat.

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Bilibili

Bilibili emerged as the closest thing to YouTube in China. While it was originally focused on the anime, comics and gaming (ACG) community, it has grown to support all types of videos. Bilibili videos can also be embedded, ad-free, onto websites.

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Zhihu

Zhihu is a question and answer platform. Users can ask and answer questions. Answers with more upvotes appear higher up in the list.

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Dianping

Dianping is an app for reviews of restaurants and other local businesses.

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Douban

Douban is a book-reading community. It’s a great place to find reliable book reviews.

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Momo

Momo is a dating app, similar to Tinder.

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Tieba

Baidu Tieba is basically a forum.

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Douyu

Douyu is a streaming platform popular with gamers.

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MaiMai

Maimai wants to be the LinkedIn of China, but it’s nowhere near as popular.

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