The speakeasy economy of WeChat

For an app with over a billion users, WeChat doesn’t make a very strong first impression.

When I opened up WeChat for the first time during freshman orientation at Indiana University (IU), I was amazed at how haphazard it was. The design looked outdated, drenched in a hideous shade of green. The media feed was limited to low-quality photos for reasons I didn’t understand. Even basic navigation was illogical and confusing. I already knew WeChat was a cornerstone of Chinese online life — arguably the most powerful app in the world. Was this it?

For most non-Chinese college students, WeChat is relatively unknown. The only non-Chinese people who use it are usually those who have a specific connection to China. As I learned more of the...

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