WeChat: China’s online social hub
https://www.globe-one.com/blog/wechat-the-chinese-app-for-everything/
Maybe you’ve heard of WeChat. It’s probably one of if not the most common phone apps in China. It’s used for messaging, and social media, and mobile payment, and… you get the idea. It’s like every app we use in our day-to-day lives rolled into one.
And for Chinese netizens, it IS every app rolled into one. Most restaurants and many businesses in China accept payment through WeChat to the point where WeChat is almost antiquating the credit card. Chinese people send Red Packets (monetary gifts) through WeChat. WeChat has replaced email for some businesses. And even international businesses like Hugo Boss and BMW have used WeChat for advertising.
So WeChat is undoubtedly a major Internet hub, probably firmly in the center of the “bowtie” of the Web. Unfortunately, WeChat has abused this position of power by working in conjunction with the Chinese government to spy on its users and censor illegal images and messages. Instead of using its dominant and privileged position to expand free access to information on the Internet, it is instead restricting it, an absolute loss for each of its users.