Tencent’s WeChat App Keeps Growing Despite Beijing Crackdown (1)

Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat super app managed remarkable growth in services from e-commerce to payments and search over the past year, defying a government crackdown that sought to tear down barriers within China’s internet arena.

Daily active users of WeChat mini-programs -- lite apps within the main social media and messaging platform -- grew about 12.5% to 450 million in 2021, Tencent executives said during the WeChat annual event Thursday. The app’s native search function -- a feature once touted as Tencent’s answer to Baidu Inc.’s dominance -- added 200 million monthly users over the past year, they ...