Downloads for WeChat sibling QQ jump after Trump’s executive order

QQ might be less prominent than its younger sibling WeChat these days, but it’s back in the spotlight among Chinese smartphone users. The app saw a surge in downloads after an executive order from US President Donald Trump that threatens WeChat’s status in the country.

In the six days after Washington announced the order, the US saw a total of 15,000 installs of the Chinese messaging app, according to data provider Sensor Tower. The number is hardly significant compared with far more popular apps like Facebook Messenger or Snapchat. But it’s a whopping threefold jump for QQ compared with the previous period.

The Trump administration’s order specifically targets Tencent’s WeChat, banning any transactions related to the app made under US jurisdiction. But the order made no mention of Tencent’s other apps – a reason why some WeChat users said they see having QQ as a precautionary measure.

Outside China, WeChat is primarily used by the Chinese diaspora to keep in touch with friends and family back home. The prospect of a ban threatens to cut off an important communication channel for them given that so many other messaging apps are banned in China.

WeChat’s payment function is also widely used. While US installs made up just around 2 per cent of WeChat’s global downloads in the first half of 2020, users there spent the most money on in-app purchases outside China, Sensor Tower said.

The administration has yet to elaborate on how the executive order will be executed, but it has separately called for the removal of “untrusted” Chinese apps from Apple’s and Google’s app stores. This, along with the vaguely worded order, has also triggered worries about the fate of other Tencent apps in the US – including QQ.