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The truth is, traditional, western mobile apps really suck, and create a lot of friction. Some of that friction only exists to maintain Apple's and Google's co
by miki123211 4y ago
The truth is, traditional, western mobile apps really suck, and create a lot of friction. Some of that friction only exists
to maintain Apple's and Google's competitive advantages (think web browsers being overly limited), but a large part of it exists because we choose privacy over user convenience.
As I understand it, weChat mini apps have the ability to reliably identify their users and keep their data across multiple devices, with no accounts and no user interaction. Imagine opening an app for recipes, adding a recipe and knowing that it's always going to be there, no matter the device, with no signing up, no figuring out a password, no complicated login screens, nothing. You open an app and it just works.
Same thing extends to payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay aren't terribly popular with users as they require extra steps to set up, and in app purchases have ridiculous fees and can't be used for goods sold outside the app.
The only western system that ever came close was probably Minitel[1], which was just too outdated technologically to survive the age of the modern internet. iCloud would also be a competitor if it worked cross platform.
[1] https://afridigest.com/super-apps-in-emerging-markets/ https://afridigest.com/super-apps-in-emerging-markets/
- baby 4y ago> weChat mini apps I always said that Facebook can innovate in different ways: 1. use their already existing social graph to produce OTHER apps that are useful 2. use their tool with a new social graph Number 2 has been done once I believe. It's called workplace. Number 1 is what Wechat is doing on steroids, and Facebook has done almost none of that. It's insane that they're not taking advantage of this and are just adding noise to the useful tool that facebook used to be.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- greenonions 4y agoYou're forgetting that Facebook can see the future and everyone is wearing helmets and gloves and living in a digital world that looks like a mobile game from 2008.
- MomoXenosaga 4y agoFacebook owns WhatsApp. It baffles me why they haven't turned that into Western WeChat yet.
- jacooper 4y agoThey are doing it, just slowly and not worldwide yet. Want to see peak WhatsApp? Check out the version of WhatsApp in India.
- zero_shift 4y agoI am finding a lot of small businesses here in the UK are trying out WhatsApp for booking jobs. For example, when I needed a couple of labourers to help me remove some garden waste recently, I received quotes by reaching out on WhatsApp.
- baby 4y agoThe direction of whatsapp was really really biased and strong towards being as simple as possible and useful as a messaging medium. It worked out pretty well fwiw. Who uses wechat besides Chinese people?
- sph 4y agoDid you really ask "who uses Wechat besides 1.4 billion people" in a model that can be monetised and extremely profitable compared to a simple messaging app?
- baby 4y agoYes I did. They're two different ways of seeing the same thing, but tell a different story: * Wechat is used by 1.4 billion people, Whatsapp is used by 2 billion people. Clearly both apps are popular (although Whatsapp wins). * Wechat is used by a single market, Whatsapp is used throughout the world. Clearly one has more potential than the other.
- 4y ago
- urthor 4y agoI will add: In my experience, increasingly there's a pattern as follows: Majority of "casual users" use the one size fits all. Think Microsoft Teams. "Highly educated power users" will go to the specific, application specific application. Splitting Teams into Slack and Zoom. We in the West however, have no appreciation, that the "Microsoft Teams model" is predominant worldwide.