Per capita bottled water consumption

As Americans have drunk more bottled water per capita, WeChat has gained more monthly active users in China, a correlation of 0.992 that connects American hydration to Chinese messaging with the transoceanic confidence of two trends that have never heard of each other. The water flows in Brooklyn, the messages flow in Beijing, and the chart draws its line across the Pacific without a care for cultural context, linguistic barriers, or the fundamental differences between H2O and instant messaging.

Bottled water consumption grew from about 37 gallons per capita in 2014 to over 47 gallons by 2023. WeChat users grew from about 500 million to over 1.3 billion. Both are smooth growth curves in their respective markets, driven by entirely different forces: bottled water by American convenience culture and tap water skepticism, WeChat by Chinese smartphone adoption and the app's evolution into a payments super-app. Ten data points of two growing metrics in two countries produces a high correlation by shape alone.

Ten years of bottled water and WeChat is a correlation that spans 7,000 miles and zero mechanisms. The Americans drink, the Chinese message, and the chart connects them with the mathematical confidence of a coefficient that has never consulted a globe. The water is bottled, the messages are encrypted, and the correlation is transparent in its meaninglessness.