WeSing recently held a national singing contest in Chinese universities, and participants can stream their singing live on the app. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Users can broadcast through live streaming or videotape themselves and upload the clip later. If they lack the skills to sing a song in their own style they can closely follow the style of a recorded original, and if what they produce leaves something to be desired they can even modify the way their voice sounds. They can also compete with others to be in the app's ranking list so as to draw more fans.

Some well-known singers use the apps, and their fans can interact with them.

"It's human nature to sing," says Chen Hua, founder and chief executive of Beijing Changba Technology Co Ltd.

"There has always been a demand for people who can sing, and there always will be. Nothing has changed except the stage on which they perform."

Changba says its karaoke app has about 30 million active users a month on average, about 62 percent of them girls and women. Most users are aged between 20 and 25.

Chen says users are always wanting changes and new features for the app, which means the company is always having to upgrade it.

"The social aspects are important in our app. Users can interact with those who have things in common with them."

Ji Mingzhong, product director of the digital music department of Tencent Music Entertainment (Shenzhen) Co Ltd, says: "A mobile app allows you to distribute your beautiful singing online."

The company is owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent Inc. Tencent's WeSing offers users a strong social network, thanks to the support of its popular instant messaging app WeChat and QQ.

"The connectivity function plays an important role in keeping app users active," Ji says. "You can interact with friends, for example by listening to their singing and sing in chorus with them. You can also challenge your friends in singing."

Prospects for the market are good and getting better, he says.

"It's essential to integrate singing with other fields such as short videos and live broadcasting or expand the settings within which the performances take place and to seek out good-quality content."