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People are betting there is room for other social apps to compete with WeChat

35 points by forkLding 7y ago

rubberbandtight 7y ago
Clickbait. WeChat is king in China. I just spent 2 weeks there. It’s incredible how pervasive it is in everyday life.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dis-sys 7y ago
completely out of date article written purely based on 3rd class info/analysis. the mentioned competitions have been there since day one, if you just look at the second half of 2018, Bullet SMS and mtoilet tried to challenge WeChat, both were very well funded and their investors/founders are extremely well connected. yet both failed in months. the so called "wechat is not considered as cool by young users" was the exact same cheap excuse used by QQ supporters a couple of years ago, nothing new here whatsoever. Bullet SMS initially attracted huge number of users last year, its killer feature is its ability to convert received voice messages to text. In just about 6 months time, without any solid evidence/data to back the claim, the author of this article is suddenly trying to sell me the cheap story that some random apps are going to win the competition because they are "socializing by speaking, not texting"? Seriously? I really hope that articles that can appear on the front page of HN should at least has some solid info/analysis, random low quality article like the OP one is not doing anyone good.
- tgtweak 7y ago
  Added to this that WeChat could trivially add voice to text and squash anyone who happened to get any market share from that.
  - dis-sys 7y ago
    at the same time, many WeChat users only use voice chat to socialize with their WeChat contacts.
  - solstice 7y ago
    I know that the Chinese language version of WeChat has been capable of doing exactly this for several months already.
syntaxing 7y ago
WeChat isn't simply a messaging service. It's pretty much Amazon, Facebook, Yelp, Dash, Venmo, Stripe/Paypal, Square, Wix, and WhatsApp combined. The reach of WeChat is stupidly vast and making a competitor will be extremely difficult.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago
  Baby steps. Amazon was just a book store, Google was just a search engine, Nintendo was just a cards company or something of the sort. You do not build Rome in a day.
  - syntaxing 7y ago
    I'm not saying it's impossible, just very hard. Especially given the nature of internet business in China. To get to a good growth, you're going to need some help from a higher up in the government which makes it even harder to establish a profitable company.
  - screye 7y ago
    Well, you sort of proved OP's point. Investing in a company whos win condition is to become the next Amazon, Google or Nintendo isn't very encouraging.
    - giancarlostoro 7y ago
      I think the beauty is that you don't invest in companies directly attempting to be that big, companies just need to be good at what they do enough to invest in other spaces. You invest in a company that has the potential to dominate their existing market. Trying to be an all in one company is only doable if you got a nation state actor funding the whole damn thing, or someone with enough money to blow. Eventually though people start getting suspicious about your company if it covers too much ground. People are getting more weary of Google, Amazon and others.
  - dna_polymerase 7y ago
    Yeah, baby steps. Alright. But all those examples had the advantage that they essentially built their whole realm. Amazon in the beginning needed not more than books to be of interest. However any competitor to WeChat had to offer much more than WeChat does now because why would I switch? Especially considering these Apps are walled gardens, meaning I'd cut myself off of my friends and connections in the other app.
specialist 7y ago
If we've learned nothing else: Instant messaging is an ever green opportunity.

35 points by forkLding 7y ago

rubberbandtight 7y ago

Clickbait. WeChat is king in China. I just spent 2 weeks there. It’s incredible how pervasive it is in everyday life.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

dis-sys 7y ago

completely out of date article written purely based on 3rd class info/analysis. the mentioned competitions have been there since day one, if you just look at the second half of 2018, Bullet SMS and mtoilet tried to challenge WeChat, both were very well funded and their investors/founders are extremely well connected. yet both failed in months. the so called "wechat is not considered as cool by young users" was the exact same cheap excuse used by QQ supporters a couple of years ago, nothing new here whatsoever. Bullet SMS initially attracted huge number of users last year, its killer feature is its ability to convert received voice messages to text. In just about 6 months time, without any solid evidence/data to back the claim, the author of this article is suddenly trying to sell me the cheap story that some random apps are going to win the competition because they are "socializing by speaking, not texting"? Seriously? I really hope that articles that can appear on the front page of HN should at least has some solid info/analysis, random low quality article like the OP one is not doing anyone good.

tgtweak 7y ago
Added to this that WeChat could trivially add voice to text and squash anyone who happened to get any market share from that.
- dis-sys 7y ago
  at the same time, many WeChat users only use voice chat to socialize with their WeChat contacts.
- solstice 7y ago
  I know that the Chinese language version of WeChat has been capable of doing exactly this for several months already.

syntaxing 7y ago

WeChat isn't simply a messaging service. It's pretty much Amazon, Facebook, Yelp, Dash, Venmo, Stripe/Paypal, Square, Wix, and WhatsApp combined. The reach of WeChat is stupidly vast and making a competitor will be extremely difficult.

giancarlostoro 7y ago
Baby steps. Amazon was just a book store, Google was just a search engine, Nintendo was just a cards company or something of the sort. You do not build Rome in a day.
- syntaxing 7y ago
  I'm not saying it's impossible, just very hard. Especially given the nature of internet business in China. To get to a good growth, you're going to need some help from a higher up in the government which makes it even harder to establish a profitable company.
- screye 7y ago
  Well, you sort of proved OP's point. Investing in a company whos win condition is to become the next Amazon, Google or Nintendo isn't very encouraging.
  - giancarlostoro 7y ago
    I think the beauty is that you don't invest in companies directly attempting to be that big, companies just need to be good at what they do enough to invest in other spaces. You invest in a company that has the potential to dominate their existing market. Trying to be an all in one company is only doable if you got a nation state actor funding the whole damn thing, or someone with enough money to blow. Eventually though people start getting suspicious about your company if it covers too much ground. People are getting more weary of Google, Amazon and others.
- dna_polymerase 7y ago
  Yeah, baby steps. Alright. But all those examples had the advantage that they essentially built their whole realm. Amazon in the beginning needed not more than books to be of interest. However any competitor to WeChat had to offer much more than WeChat does now because why would I switch? Especially considering these Apps are walled gardens, meaning I'd cut myself off of my friends and connections in the other app.

specialist 7y ago

If we've learned nothing else: Instant messaging is an ever green opportunity.