4 ms·

Can the West Learn from Social Media in China?

16 points by chanind 7y ago

remotecool 7y ago
Wechat has no ads because the government uses it to spy on almost everything you are doing from paying a parking ticket to purchasing groceries. It has replaced cash in many areas of China. It's also tightly controlled and censored. I would much rather have advertisers trying to sell me something than a totalitarian government using it to control my life.
- lyrachord 7y ago
  >>Wechat has no ads because the government uses it to spy on almost everything... Serious nonsense and ridiculousness. A typical example is there are so many financial frauds by it. BTW brain is important.
- unize4 7y ago
  Your life will not be disturbed until you use it to commit a crime.
  - victoro0 7y ago
    Or maybe attend a peaceful protest asking for political change.
  - scanny 7y ago
    Fair enough, but also keep in mind that what constitutes a crime changes over time and culture. The law is also vulnerable to interpretation, for better or for worse, by those who enforce it.
malshe 7y ago
Maybe the title should be "What can Facebook learn from WeChat?"
pizzazzaro 7y ago
Im amused to see the VC fund Tencent mentioned as a gaming company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent They have a gaming company, sure - with an animation studio, TV production studios, a record label. And apparently the defacto means of currency exchange in some areas? Imagine if Paypal and NBC-Universal merged with EA. Their animation is even featured on some of the same gray-area fan-translation sites as anime. Renewable energy? Big Data? The list goes on... That theyre more established in many fields displays the maturity of a lasting platform from a lasting company. Theyre not trading the credibility of their user-facing featureset (facebook events!) for a quick upstream-centric cash grab. It feels backwards to me personally that the bank-owned social network would have so few cash-grabs relative to their counterparts. But then again, I live in the West.

16 points by chanind 7y ago

Wechat has no ads because the government uses it to spy on almost everything you are doing from paying a parking ticket to purchasing groceries. It has replaced cash in many areas of China. It's also tightly controlled and censored. I would much rather have advertisers trying to sell me something than a totalitarian government using it to control my life.

lyrachord 7y ago
>>Wechat has no ads because the government uses it to spy on almost everything... Serious nonsense and ridiculousness. A typical example is there are so many financial frauds by it. BTW brain is important.
unize4 7y ago
Your life will not be disturbed until you use it to commit a crime.
- victoro0 7y ago
  Or maybe attend a peaceful protest asking for political change.
- scanny 7y ago
  Fair enough, but also keep in mind that what constitutes a crime changes over time and culture. The law is also vulnerable to interpretation, for better or for worse, by those who enforce it.

malshe 7y ago

Maybe the title should be "What can Facebook learn from WeChat?"

pizzazzaro 7y ago

Im amused to see the VC fund Tencent mentioned as a gaming company. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent They have a gaming company, sure - with an animation studio, TV production studios, a record label. And apparently the defacto means of currency exchange in some areas? Imagine if Paypal and NBC-Universal merged with EA. Their animation is even featured on some of the same gray-area fan-translation sites as anime. Renewable energy? Big Data? The list goes on... That theyre more established in many fields displays the maturity of a lasting platform from a lasting company. Theyre not trading the credibility of their user-facing featureset (facebook events!) for a quick upstream-centric cash grab. It feels backwards to me personally that the bank-owned social network would have so few cash-grabs relative to their counterparts. But then again, I live in the West.