How WeChat makes 44 yuan per user

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Data from market research firm Activate shows that Tencent's WeChat earns an average of US$7 per user, ranking among the top instant messaging apps in the world.

Michael J. Wolf, co-founder and CEO of technology strategy and consulting firm Activate, said at the WSJD Live global technology conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that American mobile applications will learn from the model of Chinese chat applications such as WeChat in the future and develop other functions for the applications, such as financial management, job search, and taxi hailing.

Wolf is a veteran in the media industry and a former Yahoo director. A report by Activate, a market research company he co-founded, shows that Asian instant messaging applications such as WeChat, KakaoTalk, and Line have higher revenue-generating capabilities than their Western counterparts.

According to Activate data, WeChat's average revenue per user is US$7 (about RMB 44), KakaoTalk is US$4.24 (about RMB 28), and Line is US$3.16 (about RMB 20).

Wolf said that most of the sales of Asian chat apps come from games offered on their messaging platforms. In contrast, the US chat app WhatsApp only earns 6 cents per user, Viber only 1 cent, and Messenger has no revenue at all.