When China gets regime changed, I hope these apps and services make a comeback, not necessarily in their current form. The technology isn't bad, it's the regime which corrupts it.
This is a true story: I was chilling at the outdoor shed area at West Coast Park McDonalds. I had just reinstalled Wechat on my phone, but somehow all the contacts on Wechat no longer have their profile pictures. So I chatted with my ATB friend and typed in some Chinese words casual greetings etc, and suddenly everything went back to normal.
I'm guessing on the Wechat server side, they're checking to see if you type (know) Chinese.
After Wechat Pay, Alipay is the next target. 158th shilled hard for these Chinese cashless payment methods a couple of years ago. Oops!