If you've seen a clip about a Chinese app where everyone competes on daily steps, or a company paying staff a full month's bonus for running 50km, you've met the world's most developed walking-rewards culture. China normalised "your steps have value" nearly a decade before the West caught on. Here are the apps behind it, how they actually work, and what to use if you're not in China.
1. WeChat Movement: the step leaderboard a billion people carry
The "popular Chinese step counting app" most people are thinking of isn't a standalone app at all. WeChat Movement (微信运动, Weixin Yundong) is a feature inside WeChat, the messaging app used by well over a billion people. Switch it on and it counts your steps through your phone's motion sensors, then does the thing that made it famous: ranks you against every one of your friends, every single day.
The leaderboard pushes at 10pm each night. Friends can like your step count, and whoever walks the most that day "occupies the cover" of the ranking, which is exactly as competitive as it sounds. There's no money involved (you can donate steps to charity), but the social pressure turned a pedometer into a national habit: late-night walks to overtake a colleague, phones carried on evening strolls purely so the steps count. It's the purest proof that a leaderboard alone can change how much people move.
2. Ant Forest: walk to plant real trees
Ant Forest (蚂蚁森林) lives inside Alipay, China's biggest payments app. Walking and other low-carbon choices generate "green energy" that grows a virtual tree, and when it matures, Alipay and its partners plant a real tree, mostly in China's arid north. Friends can "steal" unclaimed energy from each other, which turned collecting it into a morning ritual for hundreds of millions of users.
The scale is genuinely remarkable: hundreds of millions of real trees planted, and a Champions of the Earth award from the UN. It's the strongest counterexample to "rewards for walking are gimmicks". The reward here isn't cash at all, and it still changed behaviour at population scale.
3. The cash apps: Budoduo, Walking Planet and the walk-to-earn crowd
China also has a large ecosystem of standalone walk-to-earn apps, the best known being Budoduo (步多多, "many steps"), which pays red-envelope cash rewards for daily steps and tasks, and Walking Planet (走路星球), which mixes step tracking with collectable character cards. They cash out to WeChat Pay in small amounts.
The economics will look familiar if you've read our breakdown of what walking apps really pay: Walking Planet's published rate is 33,000 gems per yuan (about 11p), with a daily withdrawal cap of ¥38. Like their Western cousins, the step earnings are the hook and the ads are the business model. Same genre as Sweatcoin and WeWard, denominated in yuan.
4. The story going viral: a full salary bonus for 50km a month
The reason Chinese walking rewards are in everyone's feed right now is a paper company in Guangdong that scrapped performance bonuses entirely and replaced them with distance targets, tracked through a fitness app. Cover 50km in a month and your bonus equals your full monthly salary. Hit 100km and it rises to 130%. Fall short and it shrinks. Hiking counts at 60% of the distance, brisk walking at 30%.
The boss says nearly all of his roughly 100 employees now qualify for the full bonus. Reaction on Weibo was more sceptical, and tying pay to exercise raises fair questions. But as a data point on incentives it's hard to ignore: attach real value to movement and people move.
Can you use these apps outside China?
Mostly no, and it's worth saving you the attempt. WeChat Movement and Ant Forest live inside WeChat and Alipay, and the rewards and cash-outs are built around Chinese payment accounts and real-name verification. The standalone cash apps sit in Chinese app stores and pay out to WeChat Pay. Unless you have Chinese banking, they're a spectator sport.
The good news is the same idea is now everywhere. The UK's NHS is launching its own walking rewards scheme in 2027. Step apps like Sweatcoin, WeWard and Winwalk pay small amounts for steps today, and we've ranked them all in the highest paying walking apps and our UK guide to getting paid to walk.
And if you want the fuller version of the Chinese model, leaderboards, streaks and rewards on all your movement rather than steps alone, that's what Fitcoin is. It reads steps, workouts, heart rate and active energy from Apple Health and Google Health Connect into a daily FitScore, ranks you in weekly leagues against people at your level, and converts consistency into brand discounts and free items in the rewards marketplace. WeChat-style competition, Ant Forest-style rewards, available in the West.
Frequently asked questions
What is the popular Chinese step counting app?
WeChat Movement, the step counter and daily friends leaderboard built into WeChat. For rewards specifically, Ant Forest inside Alipay converts steps into real planted trees, and standalone apps like Budoduo pay small cash amounts for steps.
Can I download them in the UK or US?
Not usefully. The reward systems need Chinese payment accounts and real-name verification. The closest Western equivalents are Sweatcoin, WeWard and Winwalk for steps, or Fitcoin for leagues and rewards on all your movement.
Does Ant Forest really plant trees?
Yes. When your virtual tree matures, Alipay and its conservation partners plant a real one, mostly in China's dry northern provinces. The programme has planted hundreds of millions of trees and won the UN's Champions of the Earth award.
Is the "salary for running 50km" story real?
Yes: a Guangdong paper company with around 100 staff ties bonuses to monthly distance logged in a fitness app. 50km earns a bonus equal to a full month's salary, 100km earns 130%, with hiking counted at 60% and brisk walking at 30% of the distance.
More on earning for movement: the highest paying walking apps, how to get paid to walk in the UK, the NHS walking rewards scheme, and the best apps that pay you to exercise.
About the author: Harris Khan is the founder of Fitcoin. He studied at Loughborough University and has more than 15 years of personal experience across strength training, bodybuilding, Muay Thai, and general fitness. Fitcoin was built from the belief that real training should count, not just step totals.