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> Notably, it is also gaining traction in China, where the country’s 700 million users make up the world’s largest internet market. There, Snow has a major adva
by jonknee 10y ago
> Notably, it is also gaining traction in China, where the country’s 700 million users make up the world’s largest internet market. There, Snow has a major advantage: Snapchat is blocked in China.
That also helps!
- tuna-piano 10y agoWould that mean this snow app is providing user information to the Chinese govt? Why would snapchat be blocked but not Snow?
- stcredzero 10y agoPerhaps it flew below the radar?
- brobinson 10y agoProbably because Snapchat is an American company and Snow is not.
- whack 10y agoI agree. Chinese protectionism is a whole other story entirely. I was referring specifically to that fact that Snow is beating out Snapchat in South Korea, where Snapchat doesn't face any regulatory barriers.
- drawnwren 10y agoWhile I don't know the specific causes. You might be interested to know that South Korea has a very strong history of preferring clones to the original software. Some of it is cultural and linguistic, but Korea also has a very protectivist market. The examples I can think of, Naver over Google, KakaoTalk over Whatsapp/Messaging, KakaoTaxi over Uber, 1km/Hello There over Tinder. Edit: Actually, Kakao's (the company) business model is to take apps from the West and remake them for the Korean market. (Talk - Messaging, Music - Music Streaming, Taxi - Taxi Hailing, Story - Facebook)
- mchaver 10y agoWhat are the protectionist policies (not cultural or linguistic causes) that prevent non-Korean mobile apps from succeeding in South Korea?
- wodenokoto 10y agoThe iPhone was delayed several years in Korea because it didn't have Korean security/encryption software and was therefore considered insecure. I haven't heard about app level barriers but I wouldn't be surprised
- dba7dba 10y agoHard to see how apps can be kept out lime iPhone was. Unless you are China.
- drawnwren 10y agoWhile I don't have specific examples of this being abused. I would point out that there are actually country/region specific app stores, not one unified store. It's very common for software to not release globally. For example, much to the chagrin of most of my Thai friends, Pokemon Go is still not available in Thailand.
- dba7dba 10y agoNaver beat Google because lack of English based content, according to this article: http://searchengineland.com/naver-the-google-of-south-korea-11627 http://searchengineland.com/naver-the-google-of-south-korea-... It's not because of protectionism.
- seanmcdirmid 10y agoAnd this will probably be blocked soon also, unless they make an agreement to harmonize their service for a Chinese market and partner with some princeling's tech company.
- gkanai 10y agoThe rules in China are evolving all the time but basically to have an app in China, you need to have an entity in China, have user data on a server in China, follow all Chinese laws, etc. So if Snow wants to keep it's Chinese user base, they will need to implement everything that other CN messaging apps have done, including censoring specific keywords, etc.
- kiba 10y agoI wonder how much the disadvantage that causes for the Chinese economy, if it got slowed down at all.
- tw04 10y agoYou have to wonder at what point the US returns the favor? Just kidding, that would require our politicians having a pair.
- aianus 10y agoReturn the favor how? There aren't any novel Chinese apps worth using outside of China.