Knowledge sharing apps gaining traction

Companies developing high-quality, paid content are slowly finding a niche with Chinese customers, big-ticket investors

Like millions of working women in China, Tracy Liu too rides the subway home, but with a difference. While most of her peers are busy chatting on phones or engaging in conversation, the Beijing-based 25-year-old office worker spends her time reading English novels on Mint Reading, an English-reading program installed on the WeChat platform by Chengdu Chaoyouai Education Technology.

Liu spends 149 yuan ($21.4) to purchase content on Mint Reading, which typically allows her to read three novels within 100 days. What is different is that the interactive app is not just about reading novels, but also brushing up one's vocabulary and knowledge, said Liu as she focused her attention to the next chapter of The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 classic.