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To get anything done in China there must be some sort of state sponsorship. Just look at the crackdown on original journalism recently. This intentionally cause
by Zafira 10y ago
To get anything done in China there must be some sort of state sponsorship. Just look at the crackdown on original journalism recently. This intentionally causes only a few approved firms to prosper and allows for these ecosystem apps to flourish.
I find it hard pressed to take seriously the claim that being able to live in the WeChat app is an innovation. I can certainly see the appeal to companies interviewed by the New York Times like Facebook and Kik who probably look at that kind of usage model enviously, but I think it's important to note that the use of non-Chinese services is not looked upon highly by the Party and this can be seen as an expression of regional favoritism. As much as Facebook would hope you live and breathe in their ecosystem 24/7, 365, it's harder to get away with that in places outside of China.
- nstj 10y agoI think the "living in a WeChat ecosystem" proposition doesn't hold much appeal from a user perspective, but from the perspective of companies looking to build apps it can be quite appealing. Native development is very expensive, and being able to plug in to a platform with identity, location, payments and social network is a huge win for a company looking to get a product out quickly and cheaply.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoIMO it holds very much appeal from the user perspective - tight integration of various services is a big win, and it's something we in the west don't enjoy - with each company trying to steal your attention for themselves, instead of cooperating to build actually useful ecosystem of tools.
- nstj 10y agoOh yeah, I should have qualified that with "developing applications in non-native code for native platforms doesn't have much appeal from a user perspective". ie: it would be great if the Official Account apps available through WeChat were native (and users would like that) but they're not; broadly speaking, webviews are typically less appealing than native layout. I 100% agree that the tight integration of services is a big win from the perspective of a user.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoOk, I'll agree with your clarified point. Personally I'm alergic to webviews, I can immediately tell which application is native and which is a thin layer on top of the browser, by the very virtue of the latter sucking hard.
- nstj 10y agoA "long press" on a link in an app can often assist in separating the native "wheat" from the webview "chaff".
- sanxiyn 10y agoWouldn't you say Steam has been of great value to game developers, and in some sense it is an innovation? If so, how is WeChat different?