As AI reshapes China's tech industry, Tencent faces growing competition from rivals and AI startups. But the Chinese conglomerate’s vast WeChat ecosystem and gaming business could still give it an edge.
People visit the Tencent booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Jul 18, 2026. (Photo: AFP/Hector Retamal)
People visit the Tencent booth during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Jul 18, 2026. (Photo: AFP/Hector Retamal)
SHANGHAI/BEIJING: Like many people in China, Gu Jiu rarely goes a day without using WeChat.
The Shanghai resident checks his unread messages and catches up on friends' posts on the app before leaving home.
He uses WeChat Pay to buy his morning coffee and, while sitting at a cafe, browses tennis courts, compares prices and makes a booking without switching to another app.
"Your WeChat account can be linked to almost any platform, so you don’t need to keep track of lots of different accounts and passwords. You can just link them all through WeChat," he told CNA.
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"For many of us, WeChat isn’t just part of our personal lives. We use it for work too … Without WeChat, things would be quite a bit more troublesome."
Shanghai resident Gu Jiu relies on WeChat for a wide range of daily activities. (Image: CNA)
In China, WeChat is used for a wide range of everyday activities, from messaging and shopping to paying bills and accessing government services.
Launched in 2011, it had more than 1.4 billion monthly active users across its Chinese and international versions at the end of the first quarter of 2026.
But the rise of artificial intelligence is challenging the dominance of established internet platforms like it.
For Tencent, the Chinese internet giant behind WeChat, the question is whether it can adapt quickly enough as AI changes how people use technology.