With the rise of O2O, WeChat had grown into the title bestowed on it by Connie Chan of leading VC fund Andreesen Horowitz: a remote control for our lives. It had become a super-app, a hub for diverse functions that are spread across dozens of different apps in other ecosystems. In effect, WeChat has taken on the functionality of Facebook, iMessage, Uber, Expedia, eVite, Instagram, Skype, PayPal, Grubhub, Amazon, LimeBike, WebMD, and many more. It isn’t a perfect substitute for any one of those apps, but it can perform most of the core functions of each, with frictionless mobile payments
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