Are you planning to visit China? Well, as we all know, China is a very complicated country, not only because of its huge population causing a big variety of cultures but also because of the blossoming internet development creating numerous mobile apps that make people’s life easier. Unfortunately, some are banned in India.
And you’re going to learn how to use these apps if you want to have a nice trip in China or you’ll find it’s extremely un-convenient. Of course, if you want to access websites and apps that are blocked in China, you’re going to need to set up a VPN. I recommend you get all of the setups prior to arrival in China because it’s going to be a huge pain to do so once you’ve arrived.
Now, let’s check them one by one!
- TikTok (AKA Douyin)
- Kuaishou
- Wesee
- DouYu TV
- HUYA Live
- Anki
- Pleco
- CapCut
- KuaiYing
- WeSing
- CamScanner
- TaoBao
- Pinduoduo
- QQ Music
- NetEase Cloud Music
- TanTan (AKA Chinese Tinder)
- MoMo
- WeChat Pay and Alipay
- DiDi
- Ucar
- Baidu Maps
- Autonavi Navigation
- iQIYI
- QQ Video
- Ctrip
- Mafengwo
- Toutiao
- CCTV news
- Little Red Book (AKA RED)
- Oasis
- Ele.me food delivery
- Meituan food delivery
- Full list of 118 Chinese moile apps banned by the Indian government
- People also ask about Chinese apps
TikTok (AKA Douyin)
Chinese Apps for short videos sharing
| Type: | For short videos sharing |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zhiliaoapp.musically |
| Website: | https://www.tiktok.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
I believe I don’t need to do much introduction for this phenomenal app TikTok, known in China as Douyin (Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: Dǒuyīn), which is the most popular short video-sharing platform owned by one of the biggest Chinese companies ByteDance.
TikTok hosts a variety of short-form user videos, from genres like dance, comedy, and education, with durations from 15 seconds to three minutes. In fact, TikTok is an international version of Douyin, originally released in the Chinese market in September 2016. TikTok was launched later, I remember it’s 2017.
I have been seeing a variety of trends that have risen within TikTok during the past few years, including memes, lip-synced songs, and comedy videos. There is a feature called Duets which allows users to add their own video to an existing video with the original content’s audio, which has sparked many of these trends.
Kuaishou
Chinese Apps for short videos sharing
| Type: | For short videos sharing |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kwai.video |
| Website: | https://www.kuaishou.com/en |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Kuaishou, another Chinese short video app company, was founded in 2011 and started out as a mobile app called GIF Kuaishou, which lets users create animated images called GIFs (graphics interchange format).
In 2013, Kuaishou launched the short video and social media platform and then went live with its own live-streaming function in 2016. Kuaishou’s apps now have 769 million monthly active users. It is also starting to push into other areas such as e-commerce.
Even though I think TikTok is still the better one in this short video market of China, Kuaishou actually has its own strength, which is the power user profile from lower-tier cities of China. Chinese from lower-tier cities are more of Kuaishou users instead of TikTok (or DouYin), which is why the style of the content from Kuaishou is a bit different to TikTok.
If you’re looking for different sides of Chinese people and culture, I suggest you can download both TikTok and Kuaishou, to see the difference.
Wesee
Chinese Apps for short videos sharing
| Type: | For short videos sharing |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://apps.apple.com/cn/app/腾讯微视-短视频创作与分享 |
| Website: | https://a.app.qq.com |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Tencent launched a short-video feature for its WeChat dubbed Channels (视频号 in Chinese).
This channel is located in the social media feed called WeChat Moment, under the app’s “Discover’ tab, users can explore top-trending videos from celebrities, vloggers, craftsmen, etc. Short videos are “looping”, or automatically played after the last one finished, reminiscent of the popular short video app TikTok (or Douyin), made by Tencent’s major rival ByteDance.
The only notable difference between the two apps is that WeChat Channels limit video length to 25 seconds while TikTok (or Douyin) allows up to 5 minutes for most users and 15 minutes for a limited number of beta testers.
Because it’s made highly integrated with China’s No.1 chatting app, WeChat, it’s gaining tons of attention from the market and industry and hoping to be able to fight for the market shares from TikTok (or Douyin) and Kuaishou in China.
DouYu TV
Chinese Apps for live streaming
| Type: | For live streaming |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://m.apkpure.com/douyu/net.vice.indonesia |
| Website: | https://www.douyu.com/client |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
If you’re talking about live-streaming platforms from China, I couldn’t not mention DouYu TV which is a Chinese live-streaming media platform that provides a variety of live content including games, sports, shows, entertainment, and so on. The live-stream platform is also enabling users to submit, view, and add commentary subtitles to videos of games.
In 2019, this site was the largest of its kind in China with 163.6 million monthly active users, more than the 140 million monthly active users of Twitch. In July 2019, DouYu International Holdings Ltd raised $775 million through U.S. initial public offering (IPO) and it listed itself on the New York Stock Exchange (Nasdaq) with the stock symbol DOYU.
HUYA Live
Chinese Apps for live streaming
| Type: | For live streaming |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.huya.kiwi |
| Website: | https://www.huya.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Another live-streaming platform I have to mention is HUYA Inc., which is the No.1 game live-streaming platform in China. They have the largest and most active game live-streaming community in China.
From my point of view, HUYA is the pioneer and market leader, it’s well-positioned to expand further in the rapidly growing game live streaming market in China, cooperating with e-sports event organizers, as well as major game developers and publishers, and developing e-sports live streaming as one of the most popular content genres on our platform.
If you’re looking for the best gaming live-stream platform in China, I think HUYA is the one.
Anki
Apps for learning Chinese
| Type: | For learning Chinese |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://apps.ankiweb.net/ |
| Website: | https://apps.ankiweb.net/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Not banned |
I think Anki is a powerful and effective Chinese learning program, which is open-source and free (though the iOS version does have a fee). This means that you can study Chinese on any device where Anki is available. If you’re looking for a way to learn words and build your vocabulary effectively, I believe Anki is the app for you.
Pleco
Apps for learning Chinese
| Type: | For learning Chinese |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pleco.chinesesystem |
| Website: | https://www.pleco.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Not banned |
What impresses me the most is Pleco’s powerful dictionary with native audio pronunciations, Pleco has a plethora of additional features that make it indispensable for learners. Not only can the dictionary be used offline but also allows you to look up characters using a variety of efficient methods.
Pleco has a built-in flashcard system that also allows you to upload your own flashcards, and it lets you instantly look up any word in documents and text files.
CapCut
Chinese Apps for video editing
| Type: | For videos editing |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lemon.lvoverseas |
| Website: | https://www.capcut.net/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
CapCut is a free all-in-one video editing app, I’m so impressed by its powerful video editing function. It really can help me create incredible videos.
whatever is the Cut, reverse, or change speed, it’s just easily getting it right. I often use the advanced filters from this editing app to help edit my girlfriend’s photos and she loves it!
Its tremendous music library and exclusive copyright songs can me tons of time to look for background music materials.
Anyway, I just think CapCut is a great video editing app!
KuaiYing
Chinese Apps for video editing
| Type: | For video editing |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://apps.apple.com/cn/app/快影-创作有趣的视频/id1195860596 |
| Website: | https://www.kuaishou.com/kuaiying |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Because I also use the Chinese short video app Kuaishou, KuaiYing is another software that I’ll use for vedio editing. It is a cool app, which can be used for cutting, adjusting, and making videos on my mobile devices.
It also offers rich music, sound effects, and video templates in its library, allowing users to easily complete video editing on their phones. The video editor can automatically extract audio from the video and generate subtitles through voice recognition. What’s more, people can record or extract video sounds in real-time to generate text videos.
WeSing
Chinese Apps for karaoke
| Type: | For karaoke |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tencent.wesing |
| Website: | https://wesingapp.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
WeSing is an online social karaoke platform in China. To sing, create, or enjoy songs with friends around the world. This Chinese karaoke app has over 6 million songs and 100 million users around the world. I think it is the No.1 karaoke app in China.
With this app, you can choose to solo privately, duet with friends even celebrities, or join a karaoke party room. The large selection of voice effects and various video filters can also help your karaoke recordings stand out and win more likes. You can also join a variety of music activities to make yourself be famous.
Now you can try these Chinese karaoke songs with this amazing app!
CamScanner
Chinese Apps for scanning documents
| Type: | For scanning documents |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.intsig.camscanner |
| Website: | https://www.camscanner.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
If you’re looking for an app for scanning documents, I’ll recommend you the CamScanner, which is a Chinese app that can make your phone cameras become document scanners. Then you can scan and share your document in either PDF or JPEG formats. It is a similar app to Adobe Scanner, NoteBloc, Microsoft Office Lens, and Genius Scanner.
However, CamScanner works on a freemium model, offering you a free version with ads and a premium version that provides additional features without ads. I’ll use this app to do some editing like positioning of the document and cutting out the background. Additional features of this app include watermarking, password protection, and file merging.
Chinese Apps for chatting
| Type: | For chatting |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tencent.mm |
| Website: | https://www.wechat.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
However, WeChat (also known as Chinese WhatsApp), in China, is not just changing people texting behaviour, but also the way they access the internet. WeChat is often called “The Chinese Internet”, as almost anything you do on the web you can also do on WeChat.
The Mini-Programs help WeChat accomplish this, apps that live within the WeChat ecosystem. Besides chatting with your friends, you can use WeChat call taxis, book hotels, do online shopping, play games, do money transactions, buy tickets, and even loan money, which is so crazy!
Chinese Apps for chatting
| Type: | For chatting |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tencent.mobileqq |
| Website: | https://im.qq.com/mobileqq |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Before WeChat was born, QQ was the one dominating the Chinese market. QQ probably is the very first mega chatting app in China, setting the Guinness world record for having the largest number of users online at the same time.
It’s safe to say that the development of both web and mobile web in China is shaped by QQ.
QQ was born in 1999, and developed by the famous Chinese tech giant, Tencent. At launch, although QQ was a simple instant messenger and a blatant copy of an Israeli app called ICQ, it’s gaining popularity at unexpected speed, hitting 1 million users in its first year and 50 million users in its second year.
In 2008, QQ had already possessed 856 million total users with a record of 45.3 million simultaneous online users.
Nowadays, under the domination of WeChat, QQ still has some 850 million active monthly users. Somehow, it feels like QQ is getting back gradually by focusing more on the generation Z segments.
TaoBao
Chinese Apps for shopping
| Type: | For shopping |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.taobao.taobao |
| Website: | https://world.taobao.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Launching in 2003, TaoBao is the most dominant online shopping app in China without any doubt.
Developed by the famous China tech giant, Alibaba, Taobao is operating on a C2C model that allows the sales of goods and services between individuals, to let numerous regular people have real chance to begin their own business, which makes it’s quite unsurprised to see a huge range of products and services available on the Taobao platform.
To be honest, you can find almost anything from Taobao, no matter how rare or niche the product is, which is the main reason that most Chinese nowadays couldn’t live without this shopping app.
For a direct comparison, you can consider it the Chinese Amazon equivalent or Chinese E-bay equivalent, which is a wide-open marketplace where any person in China can register to become a merchant.
Pinduoduo
Chinese Apps for shopping
| Type: | For shopping |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store |
| APK: | https://www.malavida.com/en/soft/pinduoduo/android/#gref |
| Website: | https://en.pinduoduo.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Except for Taobao and T-mall which both are owned by Alibaba, the second online shopping platform normally will be brought up should be JD, which was the second biggest E-commerce marketplace in China. However, this time, I would like to introduce you to a new “guy” that surprises almost everyone, which is the Pinduoduo.
Launched in 2015, Pinduoduo primarily featuring revolve around group-buying, offering customers the most bargain. Within just three years of launching Pinduoduo, it’s growing rocket-fast, becoming the 2nd biggest E-commerce platform in China and the most popular China shopping app in China besides Taobao and T-mall.
Because of its group-buying business model, which means the more people buy a product the cheaper the product get, customers can get the same product here but at a cheaper price, attracting most people from Tie 2 and Tie 3 cities. You know what, this customer segmentation is exactly what Pinduoduo is willing to target.
There is no doubt that customers from Tie 1 cities do have more consumption power but those markets are quite stature nowadays and the competitors like Taobao, T-mall, and JD are competing there as well while the Tie 2 and Tie 3 cities, even the countryside markets, were neglected by most people at the time.
Therefore, when Pinduoduo put their most effort into developing those secondary markets, they’re gaining popularity fast, I mean really, really fast.
QQ Music
Chinese Apps for music
| Type: | For music |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tencent.qqmusic |
| Website: | https://y.qq.com/download/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
QQ Music is one of the most important products produced by China tech giant, Tencent. With the help of the mega Chinese App, WeChat, QQ Music soon made its way to the top range by appealing to a very wide audience, possessing more than 200 million users currently.
QQ Music shares many solid functions, such as live streaming, KTV mode, music video playing, music-related news reading, etc.
The biggest advantage of QQ Music is its capability of dealing with major music record companies. most music copyrights are authorized by QQ Music and lots of them are unique authorizations. Granted, the powerful Tencent is the main reason that QQ Music becomes successful so quickly, but the excellent user experience of the app also helps a lot.
NetEase Cloud Music
Chinese Apps for music
| Type: | For music |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store |
| APK: | https://netease-cloud-music.en.uptodown.com/android |
| Website: | https://music.163.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
NetEase Cloud Music, produced by another China tech giant, NetEase, is probably it only one that can confront the challenge from QQ Music. NetEase Cloud Music actually once was the No.1 music app in China, but because of the powerful WeChat, QQ Music gradually surpasses it and becomes an event better nowadays.
NetEase Cloud Music shares the most similar features as QQ Music and is another app owning a large number of music copyrights, enabling it to continually compete with QQ Music. One of the biggest features of NetEase Cloud Music is its social ability, which enables users to interact with performers that have profiles on the services.
Also, NetEase Cloud Music has a music streaming option for joggers called Run FM, a function that can match your running tempo by selecting music with a BPM rate.
TanTan (AKA Chinese Tinder)
Chinese Apps for dating
| Type: | For dating |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.p1.mobile.putong |
| Website: | https://tantanapp.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
It’s pretty much the Chinese Tinder equivalent. This app is using the same Swipe Right or Left matching method as Tinder. If you’re a user of Tinder, I’m sure you’ll have no problem navigating TanTan. Maybe TanTan understands the foreigners’ difficulties in making friends in China, TanTan has an English version, which helps foreigners easier mingle with Chinese.
It’s very simple when both people “like” the other’s profile, a match is formed and you can exchange messages, voice messages, videos, and pictures.
There is even an “icebreaker” feature that allows you to send 10 “canned” questions to your match. If you worry about your profile visibility, there is an option for hiding your contacts so anyone in your contact list can’t view your personal information.
MoMo
Chinese Apps for dating
| Type: | For dating |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store |
| APK: | https://xn--momo-os0na.apk.cafe/ |
| Website: | https://www.immomo.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Unlike TanTan, MoMo is not typically designed for dating but designed for competing with apps like WeChat. However, in the beginning, the “nearby” function of MoMo was so popular that so many people are bosses with using this function.
Then MoMo starts to be considered a dating app by Chinese users. There are over 110 million active users of MoMo nowadays.
The “Nearby” function helps you find people located nearby you by GPS and you can freely send friends invitations to any people nearby you. What’s funny is that WeChat actually has the “Nearby” function as well but never getting as popular as the one in MoMo.
MoMo has an interesting number of foreign users, so it could be used in many different countries across the world.
WeChat Pay and Alipay
Chinese Apps for payments
| Alipay | |
| Type: | For payment |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eg.android.AlipayGphone |
| Website: | https://www.alipay.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
When we’re talking about payment apps in China, there is really not much choice besides WeChat Pay and Alipay. Both mobile payment apps are dominating the market and occupying 95% of Chinese mobile payment users. Both payment apps are undeniably easy to use and powerful.
When you’re deciding which one should you pick, the most prior question you need to ask yourself is which app you’re using? WeChat? Taobao? Or both? But normally, you just can’t not use WeChat if you’re living in China.
Not just because it’s the most powerful app in China and can be greatly helpful in almost every aspect of your daily life such as shopping, gaming, transportation, entertainment, etc., but also because it’s the only way to keep in touch with your Chinese friends. I can’t imagine if there are any Chinese that doesn’t use WeChat.
On the other hand, Taobao is the most popular online shopping platform in China. Although there is an online shopping function in WeChat as well, its experience is way worse than the Taobao app. Therefore, using Alipay is also unavoidable if you want to have the best online shopping experience.
In conclusion, just use both of them.
DiDi
Chinese Apps for transportation
| Type: | For transportation |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.didiglobal.passenger&hl=en_US&gl=US |
| Website: | https://www.didiglobal.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
I’m sure you certainly know that DiDi is the Chinese version of Uber. The famous subsidy war between DiDi and Uber in China makes Uber lose China and make DiDi the oligarch in the ride-hailing area for a while.
Being under the umbrella of China tech giant, Tencent, the DiDi app is integrated with WeChat, being part of WeChat mini-apps, so users can use the car calling services more conveniently, making DiDi soon becomes the undefeatable No.1 ride-hailing app in China.
Fortunately, the app is available in both Chinese and English with a user interface very similar to Uber’s. DiDi has several different options ranging from “Express” to “Luxe” so you can choose the best one depending on your specific situation.
Also, the driver’s profile in DiDi can reflect the number of rides he/she has done so far, so you can judge if the driver is experienced or reliable enough.
Ucar
Chinese Apps for transportation
| Type: | For transportation |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://m.apkpure.com/ucar/io.wassa.ucar |
| Website: | https://www.10101111.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Don’t worry, if you don’t want to use DiDi for car service, there are other options and the Ucar app is the outstanding one. Ucar is also a Chinese car-hailing app launched by China Auto Rental (CAR Inc.), a leading car rental site in China. One of the biggest features of Ucar is its security.
Since the ride-hailing business is starting up, the security issue has always been the biggest concern of users. There have been many crimes related to ride-hailing apps in the past several years.
Now, Ucar is trying to build its brand quickly in China by showing its determination of eliminating the potential crime and how safe it is. In fact, it works just fine. Besides DiDi, even though its market share is still un-comparable to DiDi’s, Ucar has been becoming increasingly popular in China.
Baidu Maps
Chinese Apps for maps
| Type: | For maps |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.baidu.BaiduMap |
| Website: | https://map.baidu.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Since Google is banned by China, Baidu Maps becomes the only choice for Chinese to navigate around town for a long time. In fact, because it’s developed by a Chinese company, Baidu Maps is much more actual than Google Maps if it’s used for navigating in China.
There are lots of localization details that are hard to be accomplished by a Western company, including the translation, Chinese using habits, Maps design, local transportation schedules, etc. at the same time, Baidu Maps is offering users various excellent features like Google Maps, such as the direction calculation, multiple angles navigation.
Autonavi Navigation
Chinese Apps for maps
| Type: | For maps |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store |
| APK: | https://aapks.com/apk/com-autonavi-minimap/ |
| Website: | http://m.amap.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Autonavi Navigation is another of China’s popular navigation apps but it’s mainly for in-car GPS. Developed by AutoNavi Software Co., Ltd, a Chinese web mapping navigation and location-based services provider, the Autonavi Navigation app is launched in 2002.
Before, Autonavi Navigation company provided mapping data to Google in 2006, but after Google was banned, Autonavi Navigation company begins to develop its own map mobile app and cooperate with Apple by providing mapping data for Apple Maps, becoming one of the most popular web mapping service providers in China and owning over 100 million users. In 2014, AutoNavi was acquired by Alibaba Group.
iQIYI
Chinese Apps for movie
| Type: | For movie |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iqiyi.i18n |
| Website: | https://www.iq.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Owned by China tech giant Baidu, iQIYI is the largest Chinese streaming platform in China and possesses rich copyrighted content including movies from all around the world. You probably can consider iQIYI the Chinese Netflix, or Hulu, equivalent because you not only can find numerous movie content there but also the original movies produced by iQIYI itself.
Although the quality of most self-produced movies is quite disappointing, you still can get lots of fun from the platform. Besides, the user experience of the iQIYI app is quite fabulous, which is available in both ISO and Android platforms.
Many movies are free to watch and the price of its membership is quite a bargain, costing merely less than 3 USD monthly.
QQ Video
Chinese Apps for movie
| Type: | For movie |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store |
| APK: | https://qq.en.uptodown.com/android |
| Website: | https://v.qq.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
The second-biggest streaming platform in China besides iQIYI. Because it was created by China’s biggest tech giant Tencent, QQ video has been growing super fast in the past few years, buying tons of copyrighted content and spending lots of money on producing its original content including TV shows, movies, series, etc. Nowadays, if you have movies you couldn’t find in iQIYI, you definitely can find them in the QQ video platform.
On the other, the QQ video is attached to China’s biggest social media platform, WeChat, so it can be used even more smoothly and conveniently with your WeChat account regarding aspects like purchasing movies to watch, paying for membership, sharing movies to your friend groups, etc.
Ctrip
Chinese Apps for travel
| Type: | For travel |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ctrip.english |
| Website: | https://us.trip.com |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Ctrip is one of the best travel apps in China. it’s providing you with almost everything you need for a trip, like buying plane/train tickets, booking a hotel, hiring travel guides, travel-related articles sharing, etc.
Ctrip app also has an official English language version for foreigners and its payment system has been optimized, integrating lots of different payment methods from all around the world so you can use it without WeChat or Alipay account.
If this is your very first time visiting China, I certainly will recommend you use Ctrip as your main travel app, which is covering most of your basic needs.
However, if you’re getting more and more familiar with the China internet world, you will find that Ctrip actually is not the best option in many areas, such as hotel booking via Ctrip is not the most cost-effective, the quality of the travel articles in Ctrip is not the best, even the plane ticket buy from Ctrip sometime can not be the cheapest.
But still, if you don’t have time to learn all of them, just stick with Ctrip, which should be totally fine for you.
Mafengwo
Chinese Apps for travel
| Type: | For travel |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mfw.roadbook |
| Website: | http://www.mafengwo.cn/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Do you want to know what is the “travel bible” from the Chinese people’s point of view? It’s a travel platform called Mafengwo, which literally means hornet’s nest. Mafengwo is providing users long-form tourism-focused content to help users with their travel plans.
Because of the super quality content, Mafengwo has been viewed so positively in the travel industry that even founder of Expedia, Rich Barton, is giving strong credit to it, investing 100 million USD to Mafengwo’s Series C financing round.
Launched in 2006, Mafengwo started as a travel forum for independent travelers, allowing people to freely share their own journeys experience, travel tips, itineraries recommendations, and so on.
Because of the excellent user experience, its user base has rapidly increased over time and has developed into a millennial traveler community, possessing over 100 million users.
You can consider it the Chinese equivalent of TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, and Expedia combined. Last but not least, you can book a hotel and buy a ticket in Mafengwo for sure.
Toutiao
Chinese Apps for news
| Type: | For news |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ss.android.article.news |
| Website: | https://www.toutiao.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Banned |
Toutiao is a Chinese news and information content platform, a core product of the Beijing-based company ByteDance that owns TikTok as well. By analyzing the features of content, users, and users’ interaction with content, Toutiao’s algorithm models generate a tailored feed list of content for each user.
It’s one of China’s largest platforms for reading news, possessing over 120 million daily active users. Besides, Toutiao also allows users to freely create their own content in video or written format and spread them out after strict examination.
Undeniably, Toutiao is a perfect way for you to obtain information about what’s happening in China every day, especially for those millennium and generation Z.
CCTV news
Chinese Apps for news
| Type: | For news |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imib.cctv |
| Website: | https://www.cgtn.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Do you want to obtain the most Chinese-style news? Are you looking for a way to acquire information about the trend of China’s development? Well, you should learn to read the CCTV news.
Yes, I said, “Learn to read”. I’m not saying CCTV news is literally so deep that people can’t understand words. CCTV, just like other regular news stations, is reporting regular stuff like sports news, breaking news, international news, domestic news, etc.
But what makes it special is that people can actually acquire some very insightful information by reading CCTV news in China. There are lots of things that are going on beyond the news itself. If you’re interested in it, you can just go to Google to learn more about it.
Little Red Book (AKA RED)
Chinese Apps for sharing photos
| Type: | For sharing photos |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xingin.xhs |
| Website: | https://www.xiaohongshu.com/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
One of the most popular social media platforms in China, letting people freely share photos with each other, just like Instagram. But in a certain way, it also can be considered a shopping platform because there are tons of commercial product images shared by various regular users on the Little Red Book platform.
On the other hand, those product images are presented in a much more natural way and people don’t realize they’re being baited to buy things. Yes, this is how magical the Little Red Book is. It’s perfectly combining photo sharing with shopping behavior.
In fact, Little Red Book is officially banding users from selling things on the platform, and users can’t use any commercial wording in the post or the post will be rejected. Maybe because of it, most posts in Little Red Book are looked natural and have less commercial sense, building stronger trustworthiness to others.
Oasis
Chinese Apps for sharing photos
| Type: | For sharing photos |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://apkpure.com/绿洲/com.sina.oasis |
| Website: | https://oasis.chengdu.weibo.cn/v1/h5/download |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Created by the Tech giant Sina, Oasis is aiming to be the Chinese Instagram alternative. If you have a chance to use it, you’ll find that Oasis is awfully similar to Instagram regarding the user interface, the UI design, photo size, etc.
I know what you’re thinking, another copycat, right? Undeniably it is, but it’s still presenting its own innovation in a certain way. For example, Oasis provides a virtual currency called “Water Drops” for a user to buy stuff.
Weibo describes the Oasis app as a high-fashion and lifestyle social platform for young people. Oasis lets users post, share, and edit pictures and videos with a variety of filters, as well as add featured tags to their content.
It also encourages users to explore new experiences and products from all over the world by following others and interacting with their posts.
Ele.me food delivery
Chinese Apps for food delivery
| Type: | For food delivery |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://m.apkpure.com/饿了么/me.ele |
| Website: | https://www.ele.me/ |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Ele.me can be literally translated to “are you hungry?” in Chinese, which was the very first O2O food delivery platform developed by a bunch of college students at the very beginning. Nowadays, Ele.me is one of the leading platforms in the food delivery market of China, with over 10 million active users daily.
On 28 February 2018, it was announced that Alibaba Group is in talks to acquire Ele.me. On April 2, 2018, Alibaba officially acquired Ele.me for US$ 9.5 billion.
There was a time that several food delivery platforms were competing for market shares by any means, burning billions and billions of dollars, which really was an extremely turbulent period of time. In the end, only two companies survive, one is Ele.me, and another is Meituan food delivery.
Meituan food delivery
Chinese Apps for food delivery
| Type: | For food delivery |
| Supported devices: | iOS, Android, Windows |
| App store: | Apple App Store, Google Play Store |
| APK: | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sankuai.meituan |
| Website: | https://about.meituan.com |
| If it’s baned in India: | Unknown |
Meituan food delivery is an O2O (online to offline) service platform that provides people with food order and delivery services, just like Ele.me. its service is well developed in all of China’s Tie 1 and Tie 2 cities, covering over 300 cities in China.
Being the absolute leader in the food delivery market, Meituan is possessing over 60 million active users daily, 6 times more than Ele.me, and occupies more than 65% market share in the industry.
It seems Ele.me is the only competitor to Meituan at the beginning. But now, even Ele.me start showing weakness while Meituan is thriving.
Full list of 118 Chinese moile apps banned by the Indian government
If you’re curious about the list of Chinese apps banned by the Indian government, here’s is a full list for you, which I found from The Economic Times (Originally published on Sep 02, 2020).
I think the border tensions issue between India and China won’t be resolved at least in short term and Chinese apps probably have to continue to suffer the loss from Indian market.
- APUS Launcher Pro- Theme, Live Wallpapers, Smart
- APUS Launcher -Theme, Call Show, Wallpaper, HideApps
- APUS Security -Antivirus, Phone security, Cleaner
- APUS Turbo Cleaner 2020- Junk Cleaner, Anti-Virus
- APUS Flashlight-Free & Bright
- Cut Cut – Cut Out & Photo Background Editor
- Baidu
- Baidu Express Edition
- FaceU – Inspire your Beauty
- CamCard – Business Card Reader
- CamCard Business
- CamCard for Salesforce
- CamOCR
- InNote
- VooV Meeting – Tencent Video Conferencing
- Super Clean – Master of Cleaner, Phone Booster
- WeChat reading
- Government WeChat
- Small Q brush
- Tencent Weiyun
- Pitu
- WeChat Work
- Cyber Hunter
- Cyber Hunter Lite
- Knives Out-No rules, just fight!
- Super Mecha Champions
- LifeAfter
- Dawn of Isles
- Ludo World-Ludo Superstar
- Chess Rush
- PUBG MOBILE Nordic Map: Livik
- PUBG MOBILE LITE
- Rise of Kingdoms: Lost Crusade
- Art of Conquest: Dark Horizon
- Dank Tanks
- Warpath
- Game of Sultans
- Gallery Vault – Hide Pictures And Videos
- Smart AppLock (App Protect)
- Message Lock (SMS Lock)-Gallery Vault Developer Team
- Hide App-Hide Application Icon
- AppLock
- AppLock Lite
- 45Dual Space – Multiple Accounts & App Cloner
- ZAKZAK Pro – Live chat & video chat online
- ZAKZAK LIVE: live-streaming & video chat app
- Music – Mp3 Player
- Music Player – Audio Player & 10 Bands Equalizer
- HD Camera Selfie Beauty Camera
- Cleaner – Phone Booster
- Web Browser & Fast Explorer
- Video Player All Format for Android
- Photo Gallery HD & Editor
- Photo Gallery & Album
- Music Player – Bass Booster – Free Download
- HD Camera – Beauty Cam with Filters & Panorama
- HD Camera Pro & Selfie Camera
- Music Player – MP3 Player & 10 Bands Equalizer
- Gallery HD
- Web Browser – Fast, Privacy & Light Web Explorer
- Web Browser – Secure Explorer
- Music player – Audio Player
- Video Player – All Format HD Video Player
- Lamour Love All Over The World
- Amour- video chat & call all over the world.
- MV Master – Make Your Status Video & Community
- MV Master – Best Video Maker & Photo Video Editor
- APUS Message Center-Intelligent management
- LivU Meet new people & Video chat with strangers
- Carrom Friends : Carrom Board & Pool Game-
- Ludo All Star- Play Online Ludo Game & Board Games
- Bike Racing : Moto Traffic Rider Bike Racing Games
- Rangers Of Oblivion : Online Action MMO RPG Game
- Z Camera – Photo Editor, Beauty Selfie, Collage
- GO SMS Pro – Messenger, Free Themes, Emoji
- U-Dictionary: Oxford Dictionary Free Now Translate
- Ulike – Define your selfie in trendy style
- Tantan – Date For Real
- MICO Chat: New Friends Banaen aur Live Chat karen
- Kitty Live – Live Streaming & Video Live Chat
- Alipay
- AlipayHK
- Mobile Taobao
- Youku
- Road of Kings- Endless Glory
- Sina News
- Netease News
- Penguin FM
- Murderous Pursuits
- Tencent Watchlist (Tencent Technology
- Learn Chinese AI-Super Chinese
- HUYA LIVE – Game Live Stream
- Little Q Album
- Fighting Landlords – Free and happy Fighting Landlords
- Hi Meitu
- Mobile Legends: Pocket
- Rules of Survival
- VPN for TikTok
- Penguin E-sports Live assistant
- Buy Cars-offer everything you need, special offers and low prices
- iPick
- Beauty Camera Plus – Sweet Camera & Face Selfie
- Parallel Space Lite – Dual App
- Chief Almighty: First Thunder BC
- MARVEL Super War NetEase Games
- AFK Arena
- Creative Destruction NetEase Games
- Crusaders of Light NetEase Games
- Mafia City Yotta Games
- Onmyoji NetEase Games
- Ride Out Heroes NetEase Games
- Yimeng Jianghu-Chu Liuxiang has been fully upgraded
- Legend: Rising Empire NetEase Games
- Arena of Valor: 5v5 Arena Games
- Soul Hunters
People also ask about Chinese apps
The Indian government started banning Chinese apps in June last year referring to them as being “prejudicial” to India’s sovereignty, integrity, and national security. The main causation was in May last year that India and China engaged in a border skirmish.
It’s easy! You just need to go search the name of the Chinese app store you want to download in the Baidu search engine and then find the APK. I’ve listed out the most popular app stores in China, feel free to check them out.
Yes, PUBG is a Chinese app, which is owned by Tencent Games. Tencent Games was the one responsible for producing the PUBG Mobile version and it eventually makes it a Chinese app.
Also, PUBG now has been allowed back into Google’s Indian Play store despite India’s previous announcement that its bans are permanent. I guess it’s because PUBG is just too popular.
INFOGRAPHICS – Feel free to check out more from my Pinterest
1 Comment
Best view i have seen for long time !