True, Wechat may have totally monopolized social (after ten years in China I literally know zero people who don’t use Wechat for that), but it shares its status as the Everything App with Alipay.
Currently you’re basically a non-person if you use neither Wechat nor Alipay. By non-person, I mean it’s impossible to travel by plane or train, visit most places of business, or make purchases at most of said places of business.
We can thank Covid for the first two. The payment stuff is that it’s just so damn convenient that I stopped carrying cash years ago, and so did everyone else, so most merchants look at you sideways if you whip out some maos when it’s time to pay.
Currently you’re basically a non-person if you use neither Wechat nor Alipay. By non-person, I mean it’s impossible to travel by plane or train, visit most places of business, or make purchases at most of said places of business.
We can thank Covid for the first two. The payment stuff is that it’s just so damn convenient that I stopped carrying cash years ago, and so did everyone else, so most merchants look at you sideways if you whip out some maos when it’s time to pay.