That is an extraordinarily unhelpful simplification of why WeChat is popular.
It's popular because it's functional, has strong network effects, and people don't care about centralization or second-order effects.
Now, in the US, we see it as the role of regulators to break up unfair monopolies, and even "fair" monopolies get a lot of scrutiny. In China, the gov doesn't really complain because they can piggyback on WeChat as a control mechanism. But the government is not why WeChat is popular. It's popular because it's good!
in the immediate, effective sense. it works and people use it.
It's popular because it's functional, has strong network effects, and people don't care about centralization or second-order effects.
Now, in the US, we see it as the role of regulators to break up unfair monopolies, and even "fair" monopolies get a lot of scrutiny. In China, the gov doesn't really complain because they can piggyback on WeChat as a control mechanism. But the government is not why WeChat is popular. It's popular because it's good!
in the immediate, effective sense. it works and people use it.