The Chinese internet giant Alibaba is behind the popular Chinese propaganda app Xuexi Qiangguo (‘Study to make China stronger’), two sources within the company report to news agency Reuters.
According to the sources, Xuexi Qiangguo was developed by the Y Projects department, which carries out projects outside of Alibaba.
Xuexi Qiangguo was released by the Chinese government in January, wrote The South China Morning Post earlier. In the app, users can watch short videos, play quizzes and read official news.
Users can log in with their phone number and their real name. Then they can earn ‘credits’ by logging in, reading articles and answering questions about the political policy of the Communist Party. At a later time, users could exchange their points for rewards.
Last week the propaganda app overtook the chat app WeChat and the social medium Tap Tok as the most popular app in the Chinese app store for iPhones. The popularity is partly due to a prescription issued by local authorities and universities, in which members are instructed to download the app.
The company did not want to react to Reuters about whether a department of the company developed the propaganda app.
Lesley Woutersen, one of the co-founders of the EconomicInform gives away all of his free time to the project. He is interested in stock exchange and digital assets. Lesley can be reached by lesley.woutersen@economicinform.com.