SE Asia and China are a different animal altogether. Privacy laws there are much looser, but this is offset by much stricter government control and much less re

SE Asia and China are a different animal altogether. Privacy laws there are much looser, but this is offset by much stricter government control and much less recourse by companies like WeChat to the courts. Hint: if WeChat doesn't toe the PRC government line, it will run into... problems. Suffice to say that Asia, and particularly China, has a different approach to governance, privacy, and (broadly) the welfare of their citizens. However, given the enormous rights corporations enjoy in the West independent of the government, it's important that we don't use SE Asia or China as a model, and ensure that proprietary platforms don't have too much power over small businesses. Luckily, most small businesses in the West know this already, otherwise AOL would still be doing gangbusters business. PS. Something that's often missed about small businesses in Asia doing business solely on WeChat is that informal trust networks forged by 'contacts', are a huge thing in Asia. It doesn't matter if the seller of really cheap phone covers just has a WeChat ID if a respected merchant vouches for him. And platforms like Alibaba and Taobao exist for people who reach the limits of these informal networks and want to go to the next level.