QQ vs. WeChat: User Statistics, Feature Comparison, and Market Evolution

Recently, the topic "5 hundred million people still use QQ" trended on Weibo, sparking widespread discussion.

According to Tencent’s Q3 2023 financial report, QQ’s smart‑terminal monthly active users (MAU) reached 558 million, about 40 % of WeChat’s MAU, yet still a figure many social apps envy, surpassing the combined MAU of Weibo and Zhihu.

DT Business Observation notes that QQ’s rich functionality makes it even more beloved than WeChat for many users; for example, Douyin’s recent viral "fire‑flower" feature mirrors QQ’s earlier popular "renew‑fire‑flower".

Young users continue to favor QQ for entertainment and personalization, using it for daily chats and finding like‑minded communities.

From a work perspective, QQ still offers advantages over WeChat, such as large‑file uploads and more powerful group features (chat‑history roaming, full‑member mute, single‑member mute, message revocation, anonymous messaging), which are highly praised by professionals.

QQ’s deep integration with Tencent’s gaming ecosystem also boosts its stickiness among new users.

Despite entering a bottleneck phase, QQ remains nostalgic; netizens summarize it as "QQ is youth, WeChat is life."

Historical data shows that in 2015 WeChat’s MAU first overtook QQ’s, and in 2016 WeChat fully surpassed QQ, although QQ still peaked at 870 million MAU that year.

In the following years the gap widened, and since 2019 Tencent stopped publishing QQ’s overall MAU, reporting only smart‑terminal figures.

WeChat originally grew with QQ’s support, but later removed many QQ‑related functions: in 2013 the PC client could no longer view friends’ "WeChat online" status; in 2014 QQ‑login to WeChat was discontinued; and in 2016 the "add friends" screen removed QQ import options, signaling a clear separation.

WeChat’s official response framed the change as a natural evolution because the QQ‑friend import feature had become a niche need.

Today, debating which platform is stronger is less meaningful; WeChat has become the dominant instant‑messaging tool, yet its growth has plateaued, while QQ still has potential for resurgence.

In July 2023 QQ introduced a one‑click WeChat login, allowing users to bind their WeChat accounts, which some netizens view as an opportunity for QQ to expand its user base.

The "5 hundred million" topic continued to trend, and QQ’s official WeChat account responded with a terse "坚持? 你讲话好冷漠QAQ…"

QQ also highlighted features such as voice‑drag progress bar, pairing, face‑to‑face fast transfer, long screenshots, and asked users which they liked best.

Users praised QQ Space for recording childhood moments, the OCR function in screenshots, the ability to retrieve years‑old chat records, and the voice‑drag progress bar unavailable in WeChat.

These unique capabilities, absent from WeChat, help the once‑considered "legacy" PC‑era product remain relevant in the mobile‑internet age.

At the end of the article, a list of unrelated links (e.g., VS Code, TV‑box hacks, macOS cURL controversy, algorithm discussions, data‑processing optimization) is presented.