5 ms·

TikTok and WeChat Expose Big Tech’s Lack of Innovation

22 points by saeedjabbar 6y ago

nine_zeros 6y ago
This keeps coming up. For a few years now people have been saying how far ahead Asia is moving and how fast tech is moving there. Not just crapware but also hardware, cars, solar, cheap smartphones etc. Every time, someone would inevitably reply pointing out how US GDP is higher or how they are copying or IP rights. While these are all legit problems, people seem to be missing the point. The US is impeding domestic progress with its policies. Reducing funding for education, constant infighting, backward policies on climate, healthcare, immigration and startup ecosystem. All we are left with is bullying and forcing sales of assets. No signs of actually competing.
- seanmcdirmid 6y ago
  > No signs of actually competing. Wait, how are American companies supposed to compete in China via online services? They compete just fine around China: Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, all heavily leverage American internet services rather than Chinese ones. But...no, they aren't going to compete inside China.
  - nine_zeros 6y ago
    We don't need to compete inside China. We have the rest of the world and first access to the most important market in the world. The reciprocity of app bans are fine but make no mistake, we are the copy cats now.
- wow_no 6y ago
  If immigration is the solution then how is China winning? They essentially don’t allow immigration, especially compared to the USA
maerF0x0 6y ago
This is another nail in the coffin showing that America has forgotten how to build. Anecdotally I have been shocked at just how complacent much of the American culture is. They're usually offended that you'd want things to be better, as though it's a shameful slight on them. Someone once asked me what I thought could be improved. So I listed a few things. They turned around with "If you think it's so bad why dont you leave?". The fact that things are improvable doesnt mean they're bad.
- aeternum 6y ago
  I disagree, there's really nothing unique about TikTok and WeChat. It was basically a Vine clone with a slightly better algorithm for learning user preferences, but nothing fancier than what Google/FB have been using. In terms of culture, complaining about something is of little value. The internet has resulted in an onslaught of feedback to creators of all kinds. Much of it is not well thought-out and is of minimal value. I find that truly constructive feedback is still generally well-received.
  - maerF0x0 6y ago
    To be clear about the scenario, I was asked my opinion. I dont just go around complaining. I have found that unless the person is totally primed for negative feedback, it always results in defensiveness and spite. I've had people back stab me after asking my opinion. I mostly just dont bother anymore (in person).
- WealthVsSurvive 6y ago
  Forgetting how to build is a nice euphemism for sabotaging your own civilization by moving its own manufacturing overseas to slave labor in the 70s because you irrationally feared entitled hungry masses. What's that? Bootstraps or something? Victim-complex or some such nonsense. A pleasant notion & religion for the wealthy, I'm sure. Not a drop of truth in any of it, of course, since all activity in the 4th global industrial revolution requires mass cooperation through government or enterprise. No one is Edison because Edison had to make some wire light up, and we're tasked with designing things that take more hours than are available in a single human lifetime to create.
tatrajim 6y ago
As in Apple silicon? And still waiting for any new language or operating system from East Asia. Their entire IT industry has been built with technology cavalierly appropriated legally and otherwise from the West. Wake me when any reciprocation in fundamental tools, paradigms, algorithms occurs.
- claudiulodro 6y ago
  > And still waiting for any new language or operating system from East Asia The Ruby programming language?
  - tatrajim 6y ago
    Touché. I should have said China. But Ruby is, alas, the exception that proves the rule.
- cecja 6y ago
  Why wouldn't they use it, China was and is in rural areas pretty much a third world country. So shut the fuck up just because you were born in a country which got their capitalism hook up 100 years earlier.
verdverm 6y ago
I don't see how these apps demonstrate any innovation in tech... they are just apps. K8S, TF, MRTK among others seem far more innovative when it comes to software. Hardware is where it's at. SpaceX puts America way ahead for the space industry

22 points by saeedjabbar 6y ago

This keeps coming up. For a few years now people have been saying how far ahead Asia is moving and how fast tech is moving there. Not just crapware but also hardware, cars, solar, cheap smartphones etc. Every time, someone would inevitably reply pointing out how US GDP is higher or how they are copying or IP rights. While these are all legit problems, people seem to be missing the point. The US is impeding domestic progress with its policies. Reducing funding for education, constant infighting, backward policies on climate, healthcare, immigration and startup ecosystem. All we are left with is bullying and forcing sales of assets. No signs of actually competing.

seanmcdirmid 6y ago
> No signs of actually competing. Wait, how are American companies supposed to compete in China via online services? They compete just fine around China: Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, all heavily leverage American internet services rather than Chinese ones. But...no, they aren't going to compete inside China.
- nine_zeros 6y ago
  We don't need to compete inside China. We have the rest of the world and first access to the most important market in the world. The reciprocity of app bans are fine but make no mistake, we are the copy cats now.
wow_no 6y ago
If immigration is the solution then how is China winning? They essentially don’t allow immigration, especially compared to the USA

maerF0x0 6y ago

This is another nail in the coffin showing that America has forgotten how to build. Anecdotally I have been shocked at just how complacent much of the American culture is. They're usually offended that you'd want things to be better, as though it's a shameful slight on them. Someone once asked me what I thought could be improved. So I listed a few things. They turned around with "If you think it's so bad why dont you leave?". The fact that things are improvable doesnt mean they're bad.

aeternum 6y ago
I disagree, there's really nothing unique about TikTok and WeChat. It was basically a Vine clone with a slightly better algorithm for learning user preferences, but nothing fancier than what Google/FB have been using. In terms of culture, complaining about something is of little value. The internet has resulted in an onslaught of feedback to creators of all kinds. Much of it is not well thought-out and is of minimal value. I find that truly constructive feedback is still generally well-received.
- maerF0x0 6y ago
  To be clear about the scenario, I was asked my opinion. I dont just go around complaining. I have found that unless the person is totally primed for negative feedback, it always results in defensiveness and spite. I've had people back stab me after asking my opinion. I mostly just dont bother anymore (in person).
WealthVsSurvive 6y ago
Forgetting how to build is a nice euphemism for sabotaging your own civilization by moving its own manufacturing overseas to slave labor in the 70s because you irrationally feared entitled hungry masses. What's that? Bootstraps or something? Victim-complex or some such nonsense. A pleasant notion & religion for the wealthy, I'm sure. Not a drop of truth in any of it, of course, since all activity in the 4th global industrial revolution requires mass cooperation through government or enterprise. No one is Edison because Edison had to make some wire light up, and we're tasked with designing things that take more hours than are available in a single human lifetime to create.

tatrajim 6y ago

As in Apple silicon? And still waiting for any new language or operating system from East Asia. Their entire IT industry has been built with technology cavalierly appropriated legally and otherwise from the West. Wake me when any reciprocation in fundamental tools, paradigms, algorithms occurs.

claudiulodro 6y ago
> And still waiting for any new language or operating system from East Asia The Ruby programming language?
- tatrajim 6y ago
  Touché. I should have said China. But Ruby is, alas, the exception that proves the rule.
cecja 6y ago
Why wouldn't they use it, China was and is in rural areas pretty much a third world country. So shut the fuck up just because you were born in a country which got their capitalism hook up 100 years earlier.

verdverm 6y ago

I don't see how these apps demonstrate any innovation in tech... they are just apps. K8S, TF, MRTK among others seem far more innovative when it comes to software. Hardware is where it's at. SpaceX puts America way ahead for the space industry