A crackdown on WeChat will cause a potential disconnection between millions of Americans who use the Chinese application to connect with their families, friends and business partners located in China.

The United States has not allowed a deep penetration of the application into its markets, even after various efforts shown by technology giant Tencent to ease trade and communication-related experiences.

The US Commerce Department after announcing partial bans on Friday on WeChat and TikTok is set to cut off any connections with the TenCent.

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“They are slowing the speed to technically make it virtually impossible to use audio, video, or send images,” said Wu Ziyi, a Chinese graduate student in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Despite WeChat’s success in its home country, by making daily lives cashless and and helping the securement of food, car, gifts,accessories and various government services, it couldn’t fit into the American culture.

WeChat has an estimated 19 million active daily users in US, said Adam Blacker of Apptopia, a mobile apps consultant.

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“It’s mostly used by Chinese visiting or working here or by Chinese-Americans staying in touch with their relatives,” said William Reinsch of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

That includes several hundred thousand Chinese students in the US, who use it for “at least 90 percent” of their daily online conversations, according to Wu. He said that it can be used to exchange small amounts of money.

WeChat is also used in businesses in the US, especially for communication with Chinese suppliers.

If US businesses do use its payments function, said Reinsch, “I haven’t heard of anybody complaining that they might be stopped from doing that.”

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Now, under the Commerce Department order, WeChat cannot be used for transferring money inside the United States.Reinsch said US businesses were mainly concerned that the long-flagged crackdown would apply to use of WeChat outside the United States, which would hamstring their China businesses. That usage appears to still be allowed.

WeChat did once try to break into the US payments market, but made few inroads due to resistance by banks and merchants, regulations that favor credit and debit cards over digital wallets, and stiff competition.