WeChat turns 5: Let's look back at its defining moments

WeChat was born five years ago. Here’s our potted history of China’s most essential app.

October 2010: In development

In a Tencent office in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, away from the company’s Shenzhen HQ, a small team starts working on a mobile chat app.

January 21, 2011: Tencent launches a messaging app

It started quietly on Jan 21, 2011 when Tencent, already China’s social media giant with its MSN-style QQ instant messenger and accompanying Qzone social network (with 780 million active users at the start of 2011), made a mobile-only messaging app. It was a big break from Tencent’s very PC-era social networks and online gaming empire. Read more...