Wechat has a eco system that links to your checking account. Therefore, you can pay your bills: Taxi, fresh fruit from street, pre-order movie seat while you are on the way. I had an two weeks no-wallet-challenge last year in china. The 3rd day I gave up, not because it doesn't work, but it sounds like documentary about surfing internet nonstop for 24 back to Y2K years.
payment: https://www.techinasia.com/day-with-wechat-payments-in-store...
movie: http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/how-to-buy-movie-...
whatsapp, snapchat etc still not very close to wechat on these functions.
Then, for the first time i thought novelty is coming from the east and not the west ( i live in europe).
The only last thing that gave me a tiny little bit of hope, was that even in China, the top scientists working on advanced R&D tech still come from the west. But for how long ? I would say max 5 years. I'm still betting on the next apple or google coming from china.