If China’s success with WeChat is any indication, messaging apps may do an end run around massive portals like Facebook by coming the focal point of users’ online activity — and their e-commerce habits. Deepa Seetharaman and Juro Osawa report on how messaging apps “have become ideal hubs for other services because they are simple to use and have large numbers of users who spend a lot of time with them” in China and increasingly elsewhere, including the U.S. Subscribers to The Wall Street Journal can read more.