5 Of The Most Popular Apps In China

In China, the most popular apps aren't the giants you'd expect from Google and Meta, and, in fact, there's a good change you've probably never heard of any of them. The FBI warns Android and iPhone users to avoid certain apps that could give the Chinese government access to user data, but using the "Great Firewall of China," it also engages in internet censorship, which includes smartphone apps. This has resulted in ubiquitous Western apps such as Instagram, DoorDash, and YouTube being replaced by Chinese apps Rednote, Bilibili, and Meituan, respectively, as the most popular options among users.

Besides that, China has a unique structure of apps where some of them are known as "super apps," which is the case of Wechat and Alipay. In these platforms, you not only communicate with your family and friends, but you can use it to pay for goodies, watch videos, get train tickets, and more. We've already put together a list of the 14 best apps you should download, but here's everything you need to know about some of the most popular apps in China and how they compare to the options available in the West. 

Rednote, which is also known as Xiaohongshu, evolved from a niche travel PDF into a global lifestyle app. It was founded in 2013, and, at the time, was used as a guide for Chinese shoppers traveling abroad. Quickly, it changed its business to blend community reviews with a seamless marketplace. With around 350 million monthly active users, its features focus on multi-image and video posts that have long-form captions making it a visual search engine, similar to Instagram.

The app works as a "utility-driven" platform as it has found success for users trying to get their latest skincare routines, travel itineraries, or other fashion trends before making a purchase. The app itself calls its users as "villagers," as it sees the world as a "global village," where people can connect and communicate. When compared to Instagram, it's possible to see that Rednote is far ahead with its social shopping features, while Meta's app is still exploring these capabilities. After all, Instagram is all about scrolling and seeing what friends and celebrities are doing. Rednote, on the other hand, takes a bit of that to focus on how users can discover new products, places to travel and eat, and share experiences in a single platform.

A super-app for local services, Meituan was founded in 2010 as a group-buying site and quickly became a lifestyle titan. As of 2024, the app had close to 800 million annual transacting users and more than 14 million active merchants, and it combines a mix of local commerce, like Meituan Waimai, which is the largest food delivery service in the country, and Meituan Instashopping, offering on-demand grocery and pharmacy delivery. As a super app, though, it also includes other products such as bike-sharing, power bank rentals, and hotel/travel bookings, and generative AI to help travel itineraries and local discovery among users.

The app could be thought of as a combination of several Western apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, Yelp, Expedia, Groupon, and Lime, as the Chinese app's greatest strength is its all-in-one integration. That said, someone could read reviews of a restaurant, book a table, order a taxi to get there, and even pay for the meal all within the same application. The app is essential for buying local products online and getting nice-to-have experiences in the cities whenever you need to transport, get some power on your phone, and more.

Bilibili is China's leading video-sharing platform, which combines professional user-generated content, and animation, comics, and games community. Launched in June 2009, it started as a sanctuary for anime fans, but it has now achieved a broader demography becoming a mainstream cultural hub for Gen Z users. By early 2026, the platform had around 376 million monthly active users.

Besides consuming video, the platform features Danmu, which is a system where users' comments scroll horizontally across the video in real-time, synchronized to specific moments. The idea behind this feature is to give a sense of companionship, as viewers can feel as if they were watching content with several other people simultaneously. What's interesting about this function is that users need to pass a 100-question membership exam to ensure they can also comment on these videos.

For Western counterparts, Bilibili would be described as a hybrid of YouTube, Twitch, and Netflix, as it's a creator-first platform. It has a massive live-streaming ecosystem rooted in gaming and esports, but Bilibili also acts as a major production house and distributor for professional anime and documentaries.

WeChat might be "the" Chinese app. Launched in 2011 by Tencent, it began as a mobile messaging service designed to disrupt traditional SMS. Fast forward to 2026, WeChat features 1.41 billion monthly active users, and it's practically mandatory for anyone in China to talk with friends, coworkers, and family members. Besides the chat abilities, WeChat also features Moments, a social feed with Instagram Reels-like videos, WeChat Pay, which is a mobile wallet, and Mini Programs, which are sub-apps that run within WeChat and can let users order taxis, book medical appointments, or play games without a separate download.

Of the Chinese apps mentioned above, WeChat is the only one I actually use as it's the best way to communicate with my Chinese-based friends, public relations, and more. To compare this platform with a Western option, we would be talking about something like WhatsApp, even though the platform offers a lot more features than WhatsApp. While Mark Zuckerberg continues to make WhatsApp into a super app, as you can pay inside the app, watch Status, create communities, and more, WeChat is also a mix of Paypal, Amazon, and Yelp, as it integrates all these apps' key features into its own software. Not only that, but WeChat isn't just a social media, but even your digital ID and utility bills can be managed inside the platform.

Alipay is another giant Chinese app. It's the world's leading digital payment and lifestyle platform, and it was established in February 2003 by the Alibaba group. At the time, it was designed to solve the issue between buyers and sellers on the e-commerce site Taobao. However, the app quickly evolved and as of 2026, Alipay connects more than 1 billion active users to over 80 million merchants within China. When considering Alipay+, which integrates with international e-wallets, we're talking about 2 billion user accounts worldwide.

With Alipay, users can chat, make payments, use Mini Programs for local services like insurance and utility bills, and even use the new AI Pay feature, which is an agentic commerce that allows users to authorize payments via voice and AI agents for a hands-free experience.

The most similar experience for Western users would be combining PayPal and Apple Pay, but none of these services embrace the enormous platform Alipay has become, as it's not just a digital wallet, but an all-in-one app for everyday needs, communicating with friends, paying bills, and anything in between.