WeChat's App Revolution

[Boon]

WeChat's App Revolution
18 Jan 2017
By Adam Minter

The biggest long-term threat to the iPhone isn't Android, Samsung Electronics Co. or China's bevy of cheap phone makers. Instead, it's a deceptively simple idea: Apps work better if you embed them in a single program, rather than let them proliferate across your home screen. WeChat, China's leading social media app, just launched a new platform with exactly that idea in mind. It has the potential to reconfigure smartphones as radically as anything since the first iPhone was released.

The company calls the concept "mini programs," and the idea is that users can call up useful features from third parties -- photo filters, language tools, ride-sharing services -- within the WeChat app and use them instantly, with no downloading or installation required. Although that sounds like a modest innovation, it solves two crucial problems plaguing the app model............................

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/...revolution
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[Wildreamz]

[Wildreamz]

Sorry, it's a Saturday, having a bit of fun  

Tencent is certainly an innovative company that have served a generation of internet users well, and will certainly do better in the future.

That said, the video I posted, does make a good point though: It doesn't matter if an app has a ton of features, if it does everything poorly. At the end of the day, it's about execution and whether putting everything in 1 app improves user experience.

And unless they are selling physical goods (like Amazon) or real world services (like Uber), they are still going to need to pay Apple/Google 30% and will not threaten Apple/Google's existing income stream.

More on Wechat (it has been a "Super App" for a long time):

[yeokiwi]

The idea is great but it is still a closed app that is meant only for China.
Foreign wechat apps cannot access china user base which uses chinese version of wechat.

The speech by Xi JinPing at Davos forum sounded so hypocritical.
Mr Xi likened protectionism to "locking oneself in a dark room" in the hopes of protecting oneself from danger, but in so doing, cutting off all "light and air"."

[BlueKelah]

Lol communist need absolute control over their people to stay in power lah, that's why China so heavy on censorship. They even have dedicated department to monitor internet postings and chats. Say anything bad or inciteful about gov, u be disappeared the next day.

IMHO if an app embed many other apps it will end up being like the operating system lol...

I guess that's what wechat is aiming to do. once they have permissions to most of the phone, they can then send user data back to base, which will be a server in China that the gov will have full access.

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[CY09]

Lol communist need absolute control over their people to stay in power lah, that's why China so heavy on censorship. They even have dedicated department to monitor internet postings and chats. Say anything bad or inciteful about gov, u be disappeared the next day.

IMHO if an app embed many other apps it will end up being like the operating system lol...

I guess that's what wechat is aiming to do. once they have permissions to most of the phone, they can then send user data back to base, which will be a server in China that the gov will have full access.

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Hi Bluekelah,

Just curious do you think more democratic countries like Singapore "have dedicated department to monitor internet postings and chats. "?

Imo, they might be such departments here though not as dedicated but as monitoring for sense making of the ground

[BlueKelah]

I would expect most country will have some people to monitor and censor their internet traffic, but not to the extent of China loh. Some info
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet...p_in_China

Afaik we have MDA in charge of regulating internet content. Some inappropriate sites like porn sites are blocked but mostly websites we would agree are objectionable and would not want our kids accidentally clicking into. As for forum and chatrooms, I am not aware of any dedicated 24 hours monitoring crew. Also we do not force / have requirement for overseas tech companies like Google or Facebook to specially set up keyword monitoring systems.

Usa has their homeland security team monitoring but my impression is their main purpose is still anti terrorism rather than political control. U can still say some bad things about Trump , check out his Twitter post replies , and not get gov people at your door.

And remember the FBI going to court to try get the drug dealer iPhone encryption access? At least that shows Gov can't just simply force company to release private user info.







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