[lessname]

Is it really the power of WeChat or the chinese government though?

[em-bee]

it's wechat. you really need it in china. it's practically impossible to stay in touch with most people if you don't have it. a phone that can't run wechat is pretty useless.

[ospider]

Actually, it's both. Back in 2022, you have to install either WeChat or Alipay to scan the government's health code literally everywhere.

[gehsty]

The app is obviously incredibly popular, but if it wasn’t back by the Chinese government I imagine apple would have enforced their App Store rules.

I imagine some kind of deal along the lines of “no WeChat no iPhone in China” was done.

[hackernewds]

then they could simply just enable it in China and not in the US

[afavour]

In this scenario it doesn’t really matter. They’re interchangeable.

[nextworddev]

They are basically the same

[ChrisRR]

They're the same thing