14 ms·

Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)

244 points by spenvo 3y ago

gaoshan 3y ago
If WeChat was not permitted on iPhones, iPhones would not sell in China.
- CharlesW 3y ago
  And would not be purchased by many people around the world.
srvmshr 3y ago
I use WeChat to talk to my in-laws in Mainland China. I am aware of the mini-apps that exist but they are severely lacking features & more of add on utilities to the WeChat interface. For e.g. a popular one is a mini-app for DiDi cabs. It'll allow you to book a nearby cab & place a call/text using the WeChat integration. It is more of utility to WeChat/Weixin rather than an appstore within their app. Agreed it is somewhat borderline in definition, but the way I see it - the utilities and apps are sandboxed within WeChat ecosystem.
- detourdog 3y ago
  It is probably exciting for Apple to contemplate support for this type of platform. To see other cultural approaches is probably worth giving some freedom to becuase it will stretch their own thinking.
sn_master 3y ago
Interesting how they'll react to X. WeChat seems to be the closest thing to an "Everything App" that Elon wants to create.
- sdfghswe 3y ago
  It's still twitter. I love that your previous comment was that "people use twitter because of free speech", and now I can't even look at it without logging in. Proof that on the internet anyone can sound confident.
  - sourcecodeplz 3y ago
    What does logging-in have to do with free speech?
- stefan_ 3y ago
  WeChat is the "everything app" because it has a government monopoly. I'm sure there was and is some organic competition but it's also obvious they picked a winner and ran with it.
  - rat9988 3y ago
    Can you tell us more about how the government picked the winner?
    - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
      Under COVID, when being able to board public transport, enter venues, etc. required showing one’s health status from one’s phone, the Chinese state facilitated that through two apps in particular: WeChat and Alipay.
      - MichaelZuo 3y ago
        That sounds like a duopoly, but it's still surprising that there was no third option at all. Are you sure they couldn't even bring printed out forms?
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
        OfSanguineFire 3y ago
        > Are you sure they couldn't even bring printed out forms? In China your health status (green/yellow/red) was automatically calculated based on what neighborhoods of the city you had been in, what other people you passed by in the street or on public transportation, etc. So, it could change in an instant, and that is why it was shown from phone apps that constantly updated. It wasn’t a fixed thing like vaccination status, where a printed form would make sense.
        em-bee 3y ago
- justapassenger 3y ago
  X is vaporware. And even if they add those features, adoption is a slightly more complex story. Also look at Facebook. You can talk with friends. Send money. Interact with businesses. Play games. Date. Sell and buy stuff. And many more. But they don’t have state supported monopoly position, so it’s not an everything app.
spacebanana7 3y ago
Much like Adobe did to Macs in the 1990s, WeChat has become so powerful they control the platform. Apple can’t remove WeChat because most consumers would rather change device hardware than lose access to WeChat.
- sdfghswe 3y ago
  > Much like Adobe did to Macs in the 1990s, WeChat has become so powerful they control the platform. I'd enjoy listening to the story here, spacebanana.
  - spacebanana7 3y ago
    Adobe almost killed Apple by developing Windows-first and sometimes Windows-only products in the 1990s. Many professionals cared about Adobe software more than their hardware device, so moved platforms. Adobe’s motivation was largely revenge against Apple for opening up printing standards. Previously Adobe had a de facto monopoly license on these. Steve Jobs was extremely pissed off by seeing Apple get hurt for making a pro consumer decision that was good for the wider industry, and held the grudge for a long time. Even though he wasn’t CEO for much of this period. This article has more detail if you’re interested [1] [1] https://www.alphr.com/blogs/2010/05/05/apple-adobe-history/ https://www.alphr.com/blogs/2010/05/05/apple-adobe-history/
    - yreg 3y ago
      Steve eventually got his revenge: https://web.archive.org/web/20170615060422/https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170615060422/https://www.apple...
      - paulmd 3y ago
        This is a perfect explanation of apple’s relationship with NVIDIA and the CUDA platform too. Bumpgate affected AMD products too, this was the era of baking your 7850 to try and reflow the solder bumps, and apple was just trying to get the supplier to pay for the problems with the RoHS solders that apple specified in the product designs. Apple has always been a clientzilla that ruthlessly leans on its partners and suppliers (most recently Goldman Sachs is feeling the pain from the Apple Card) and believes that it’s a privilege to hold their business. And nvidia isn’t a company that got rich by bending over for that kind of treatment either (see also their relation with Microsoft). Apple really wanted to terminate their relationship with nvidia anyway and this was just them demanding a big check on the way out the door. Nothing like making your ex pay for the cost of you moving out during the breakup.
joshstrange 3y ago
I'm not sure this article has the slam dunk it thinks it does. Those aren't "apps" they are at best "web apps". They use a JS framework and some special markup from what I can tell. In this sense WeChat is more akin to a web browser than having multiple "apps" inside it. > Since these are “apps within an app”, many of these mini-programs are flouting the App Store rules since they were not downloaded from the App Store. I mean Drafts has the ability to download actions (not sure if that is the right term) which are JS that run inside the app. I think this is fine and doesn't skirt any rules, I don't see why WeChat is all that different. All that said, of course Apple is going to make exceptions for WeChat the same way it makes various concessions to other countries.
- thefounder 3y ago
  >> I mean Drafts has the ability to download actions (not sure if that is the right term) which are JS that run inside the app. I think this is fine and doesn't skirt any rules, I'm not familiar with that particular app but if that happens it's not fine and it seems to get a pass from Apple. The apps are not allowed to download executable code. You have to bundle it all in the app.
  - ecedeno 3y ago
    That's not exclusive to that app. Being able to update the app without going through the App Store was one of the big selling points of React Native a few years back. Apps are not allowed to download native code, however.
    - tl 3y ago
      That's ...not a feature of React Native. It's possible to reload the app's content on code change, but this very clearly intended for development only.
      - williamdclt 3y ago
        You’re describing fast refresh, the parent is talking about codepush. The whole point of CodePush is definitely to update the app without going through the store. It downloads a JS bundle (which is usually most of the app functionalities) and executes it.
yding 3y ago
Here's a stat I heard a few years back: WeChat has over 50% time share in China. Meaning people in China are on WeChat more than all other apps on their phones combined.
- nathansherburn 3y ago
  That seems high to me. A lot of people seem to spend most of their time on xiaohongshu (like Pinterest?), douyin (tiktok), bilibili (like YouTube) etc. WeChat is good for its utility functions like ordering a Didi, chatting with friends or ordering from a restaurant but for entertainment (where people spend most of their time) it's pretty basic.
spenvo 3y ago
This rules inconsistency (alongside unpredictable (dis-)approvals and double standards for WeChat, Roblox, and (at times) Amazon and others) came up as one of a dozen reasons that, as a solo casual game developer, _launching_ in the App Store is not necessarily the no-brainer decision it seemed to be a decade ago (despite its enormous market power) I lay out in a separate post here https://keydiscussions.com/2023/07/26/as-a-web-game-dev-points-in-favor-and-many-against-of-an-app-store-debut/ https://keydiscussions.com/2023/07/26/as-a-web-game-dev-poin...
- threeseed 3y ago
  There are about ~2m apps on the iOS App Store. And if we assume on average 10 updates to each app then we have ~20m approvals/rejections. Given that the process involves real people it is only normal for there to be many inconsistencies and double standards at this scale. Especially when the rules have evolved over the last 15 years and you have app developers who like to push the limits of what's allowed.
  - ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
    the issue is that this double standard is conscious and intentional, rather than simply an artifact of probability
    - MichaelZuo 3y ago
      At the very beginning it likely conformed to all the rules as there likely wasn't much functionality in v1.0. By the time it attracted the attention of Apple decision makers, it was too sticky to ban as another user pointed out. i.e. Wechat users would rather switch to Android than lose the app. I guess the lesson is that exceptions will be made if you can grow an app literally a million fold in a few years and become a vital part of your user's day-to-day lives.
      - ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
        I agree: this double standard is conscious and intentional, rather than simply an artifact of probability & randomness
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
(2020) Anything new since?
annexrichmond 3y ago
Just like how Apple killed Tumblr for porn problems but gave Twitter a pass
- notaustinpowers 3y ago
  From what I understand is was more because Tumblr had a much younger user demographic with very ineffective content reporting tools. Allowed NSFW content without a desktop opt-in function. And also being bought by Yahoo who wanted to cash in on Tumblr advertising probably played a huge role in it too. Twitter skews older, requires desktop opt-in for NSFW content, and (before Musk) had decent content reporting functions.
  - tumult 3y ago
    Do you have any information about this? Where did you hear this? I'd always heard it was because some people at Apple used Twitter, but nobody used Tumblr, so Tumblr didn't get a free pass from arbitrary torment.
    - lalopalota 3y ago
      Do you have any information about this? Where did you hear this?
      - tumult 3y ago
        From news links and comments here on this site, especially around 2018 when Tumblr was going through repeated App Store rejections. I think people, including myself, infer it from this information: 1. Apple executives like Phil Schiller used Twitter for years. 2. Apple bought advertising on Twitter. 3. https://sreegs.tumblr.com/post/671649355334336512/alright-lets-talk-about-apple-and-tumblrs https://sreegs.tumblr.com/post/671649355334336512/alright-le...
    - notaustinpowers 3y ago
      No sourcable information on it. More so just experience and mumblings around Tumblr since I've been on there since 2011.
game_the0ry 3y ago
When the west opened trade to China, policy experts assumed China would become more liberal like the west. Instead, the west is becoming more like China. [1, 2, 3] [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrity-api-sounds-like-drm-for-the-web/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrit... [2] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/ready-for-your-eye-scan-worldcoin-launches-but-not-quite-worldwide/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/ready-for-your-e... [3] (countless more examples, especially recently...)
- derefr 3y ago
  China is becoming more liberal in the classical sense (more money accruing to regular "new money" entrepreneurs instead of to oligarchs); they just haven't hit the "borgeoisie-funded revolt against the aristocracy" phase of liberalization yet. Give them 50 years.
  - Georgelemental 3y ago
    They hit it in the 90s, except it failed hard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests...
    - Tuna-Fish 3y ago
      ... That really wasn't what the Tienanmen Square Protests were about, at all. The protest were a massive mixture of different ideologies, but the dominant ones were democratic politics, and communist economics, opposing the trend towards oligarchic/autocratic rule and liberalized economy.
      - aio2 3y ago
        And now look at what they got.
        pokepim 3y ago
howinteresting 3y ago
Privacy. That's iPhone.
meowtimemania 3y ago
I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"? Do people like the wechat experience because you have one login and don't have to go through an onboarding process in every mini-app?
- bunga-bunga 3y ago
  > I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"? Why are you downloading apps from the App Store instead of running separate OSes? This is the same concept, just one level down. Really, WeChat is just a browser with extra APIs and a website catalog. > Do people like the wechat experience because you have one login and don't have to go through an onboarding process in every mini-app? I’m not fully familiar with its history, but from what I understand Tencent added more and more “apps” to their chat app and eventually let third parties into it. This is exactly what Facebook did in 2010: we also had third party “apps” on Facebook. They were also just iframed websites with extra APIs.
  - Andrex 3y ago
    > I’m not fully familiar with its history, but from what I understand Tencent added more and more “apps” to their chat app and eventually let third parties into it. This is exactly what Facebook did in 2010: we also had third party “apps” on Facebook. They were also just iframed websites with extra APIs. It's crazy how long ago this feels. FarmVille legitimately took over the country for a bit.
- oldgradstudent 3y ago
  > I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"? The web browser is an everything app on your desktop. As Marc Andreessen said at the time: > Netscape will soon reduce Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers.
  - gottorf 3y ago
    > As Marc Andreessen said at the time: >> Netscape will soon reduce Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers. It's funny how history proved him so wrong and so right at the same time.
znpy 3y ago
I don’t find that surprising at all. Apple and China are both regimes and it’s not surprising at all they go hand in hand.
lencastre 3y ago
Because Jina
chrononaut 3y ago
The concatenation of "Apple is" might make this the most egregious garden-path sentence[0] I have read in the last few months. I had to re-read this multiple times. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence
trompetenaccoun 3y ago
>And with Apple’s shareholders not in agreement to actually put their money where their mouth is when it comes to human rights, it’s not likely Apple is going to go against China anytime soon. Interesting link in that last paragraph: https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-rejects-freedom-of-expression https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-rejects-freedom-of-expressio...
bitwize 3y ago
Back in the 90s when the PlayStation was released, Sony Computer Entertainment America implemented rules about which sorts of games would and would not be approved: specifically, you needed to be developing 3D polygon games. If you were developing a sprite-based game, you were likely unable to get approval to publish it. We missed out on a lot of great Japanese sprite based games this way, simply because they didn't fit into SCEA's marketing strategy based around the idea that sprites are old hat, and the PlayStation is the sexy new console that leaves all that behind in favor of 3D polygons. Of course, Sony made exceptions to this policy for major publishers and their big-ticket franchises like Capcom with Street Fighter...
xxoo 3y ago
This article is obviously biased in every possible way to measure it. 1. WeChat is not the only app that comes with "mini program", Alipay for a big example. 2. WeChat is not the only app that delivers news and media information and consumes a huge amount of users's time, DouYin for a big example. Why mention and only mention political events when you are talking about an iOS app and Apple store censorship ? Or you're just merely talking about politics of your value.
ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
>Owned by state-backed Tencent and increasingly privacy invasive and censorship-driven, why does WeChat why does Apple let Hmm.

244 points by spenvo 3y ago

gaoshan 3y ago

If WeChat was not permitted on iPhones, iPhones would not sell in China.

CharlesW 3y ago
And would not be purchased by many people around the world.

srvmshr 3y ago

I use WeChat to talk to my in-laws in Mainland China. I am aware of the mini-apps that exist but they are severely lacking features & more of add on utilities to the WeChat interface. For e.g. a popular one is a mini-app for DiDi cabs. It'll allow you to book a nearby cab & place a call/text using the WeChat integration. It is more of utility to WeChat/Weixin rather than an appstore within their app. Agreed it is somewhat borderline in definition, but the way I see it - the utilities and apps are sandboxed within WeChat ecosystem.

detourdog 3y ago
It is probably exciting for Apple to contemplate support for this type of platform. To see other cultural approaches is probably worth giving some freedom to becuase it will stretch their own thinking.

sn_master 3y ago

Interesting how they'll react to X. WeChat seems to be the closest thing to an "Everything App" that Elon wants to create.

sdfghswe 3y ago
It's still twitter. I love that your previous comment was that "people use twitter because of free speech", and now I can't even look at it without logging in. Proof that on the internet anyone can sound confident.
- sourcecodeplz 3y ago
  What does logging-in have to do with free speech?
stefan_ 3y ago
WeChat is the "everything app" because it has a government monopoly. I'm sure there was and is some organic competition but it's also obvious they picked a winner and ran with it.
- rat9988 3y ago
  Can you tell us more about how the government picked the winner?
  - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
    Under COVID, when being able to board public transport, enter venues, etc. required showing one’s health status from one’s phone, the Chinese state facilitated that through two apps in particular: WeChat and Alipay.
    - MichaelZuo 3y ago
      That sounds like a duopoly, but it's still surprising that there was no third option at all. Are you sure they couldn't even bring printed out forms?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
        > Are you sure they couldn't even bring printed out forms? In China your health status (green/yellow/red) was automatically calculated based on what neighborhoods of the city you had been in, what other people you passed by in the street or on public transportation, etc. So, it could change in an instant, and that is why it was shown from phone apps that constantly updated. It wasn’t a fixed thing like vaccination status, where a printed form would make sense.
        em-bee 3y ago
justapassenger 3y ago
X is vaporware. And even if they add those features, adoption is a slightly more complex story. Also look at Facebook. You can talk with friends. Send money. Interact with businesses. Play games. Date. Sell and buy stuff. And many more. But they don’t have state supported monopoly position, so it’s not an everything app.

spacebanana7 3y ago

Much like Adobe did to Macs in the 1990s, WeChat has become so powerful they control the platform. Apple can’t remove WeChat because most consumers would rather change device hardware than lose access to WeChat.

sdfghswe 3y ago
> Much like Adobe did to Macs in the 1990s, WeChat has become so powerful they control the platform. I'd enjoy listening to the story here, spacebanana.
- spacebanana7 3y ago
  Adobe almost killed Apple by developing Windows-first and sometimes Windows-only products in the 1990s. Many professionals cared about Adobe software more than their hardware device, so moved platforms. Adobe’s motivation was largely revenge against Apple for opening up printing standards. Previously Adobe had a de facto monopoly license on these. Steve Jobs was extremely pissed off by seeing Apple get hurt for making a pro consumer decision that was good for the wider industry, and held the grudge for a long time. Even though he wasn’t CEO for much of this period. This article has more detail if you’re interested [1] [1] https://www.alphr.com/blogs/2010/05/05/apple-adobe-history/ https://www.alphr.com/blogs/2010/05/05/apple-adobe-history/
  - yreg 3y ago
    Steve eventually got his revenge: https://web.archive.org/web/20170615060422/https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170615060422/https://www.apple...
    - paulmd 3y ago
      This is a perfect explanation of apple’s relationship with NVIDIA and the CUDA platform too. Bumpgate affected AMD products too, this was the era of baking your 7850 to try and reflow the solder bumps, and apple was just trying to get the supplier to pay for the problems with the RoHS solders that apple specified in the product designs. Apple has always been a clientzilla that ruthlessly leans on its partners and suppliers (most recently Goldman Sachs is feeling the pain from the Apple Card) and believes that it’s a privilege to hold their business. And nvidia isn’t a company that got rich by bending over for that kind of treatment either (see also their relation with Microsoft). Apple really wanted to terminate their relationship with nvidia anyway and this was just them demanding a big check on the way out the door. Nothing like making your ex pay for the cost of you moving out during the breakup.

joshstrange 3y ago

I'm not sure this article has the slam dunk it thinks it does. Those aren't "apps" they are at best "web apps". They use a JS framework and some special markup from what I can tell. In this sense WeChat is more akin to a web browser than having multiple "apps" inside it. > Since these are “apps within an app”, many of these mini-programs are flouting the App Store rules since they were not downloaded from the App Store. I mean Drafts has the ability to download actions (not sure if that is the right term) which are JS that run inside the app. I think this is fine and doesn't skirt any rules, I don't see why WeChat is all that different. All that said, of course Apple is going to make exceptions for WeChat the same way it makes various concessions to other countries.

thefounder 3y ago
>> I mean Drafts has the ability to download actions (not sure if that is the right term) which are JS that run inside the app. I think this is fine and doesn't skirt any rules, I'm not familiar with that particular app but if that happens it's not fine and it seems to get a pass from Apple. The apps are not allowed to download executable code. You have to bundle it all in the app.
- ecedeno 3y ago
  That's not exclusive to that app. Being able to update the app without going through the App Store was one of the big selling points of React Native a few years back. Apps are not allowed to download native code, however.
  - tl 3y ago
    That's ...not a feature of React Native. It's possible to reload the app's content on code change, but this very clearly intended for development only.
    - williamdclt 3y ago
      You’re describing fast refresh, the parent is talking about codepush. The whole point of CodePush is definitely to update the app without going through the store. It downloads a JS bundle (which is usually most of the app functionalities) and executes it.

yding 3y ago

Here's a stat I heard a few years back: WeChat has over 50% time share in China. Meaning people in China are on WeChat more than all other apps on their phones combined.

nathansherburn 3y ago
That seems high to me. A lot of people seem to spend most of their time on xiaohongshu (like Pinterest?), douyin (tiktok), bilibili (like YouTube) etc. WeChat is good for its utility functions like ordering a Didi, chatting with friends or ordering from a restaurant but for entertainment (where people spend most of their time) it's pretty basic.

spenvo 3y ago

This rules inconsistency (alongside unpredictable (dis-)approvals and double standards for WeChat, Roblox, and (at times) Amazon and others) came up as one of a dozen reasons that, as a solo casual game developer, _launching_ in the App Store is not necessarily the no-brainer decision it seemed to be a decade ago (despite its enormous market power) I lay out in a separate post here https://keydiscussions.com/2023/07/26/as-a-web-game-dev-points-in-favor-and-many-against-of-an-app-store-debut/ https://keydiscussions.com/2023/07/26/as-a-web-game-dev-poin...

threeseed 3y ago
There are about ~2m apps on the iOS App Store. And if we assume on average 10 updates to each app then we have ~20m approvals/rejections. Given that the process involves real people it is only normal for there to be many inconsistencies and double standards at this scale. Especially when the rules have evolved over the last 15 years and you have app developers who like to push the limits of what's allowed.
- ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
  the issue is that this double standard is conscious and intentional, rather than simply an artifact of probability
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    At the very beginning it likely conformed to all the rules as there likely wasn't much functionality in v1.0. By the time it attracted the attention of Apple decision makers, it was too sticky to ban as another user pointed out. i.e. Wechat users would rather switch to Android than lose the app. I guess the lesson is that exceptions will be made if you can grow an app literally a million fold in a few years and become a vital part of your user's day-to-day lives.
    - ImPostingOnHN 3y ago
      I agree: this double standard is conscious and intentional, rather than simply an artifact of probability & randomness

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

(2020) Anything new since?

annexrichmond 3y ago

Just like how Apple killed Tumblr for porn problems but gave Twitter a pass

notaustinpowers 3y ago
From what I understand is was more because Tumblr had a much younger user demographic with very ineffective content reporting tools. Allowed NSFW content without a desktop opt-in function. And also being bought by Yahoo who wanted to cash in on Tumblr advertising probably played a huge role in it too. Twitter skews older, requires desktop opt-in for NSFW content, and (before Musk) had decent content reporting functions.
- tumult 3y ago
  Do you have any information about this? Where did you hear this? I'd always heard it was because some people at Apple used Twitter, but nobody used Tumblr, so Tumblr didn't get a free pass from arbitrary torment.
  - lalopalota 3y ago
    Do you have any information about this? Where did you hear this?
    - tumult 3y ago
      From news links and comments here on this site, especially around 2018 when Tumblr was going through repeated App Store rejections. I think people, including myself, infer it from this information: 1. Apple executives like Phil Schiller used Twitter for years. 2. Apple bought advertising on Twitter. 3. https://sreegs.tumblr.com/post/671649355334336512/alright-lets-talk-about-apple-and-tumblrs https://sreegs.tumblr.com/post/671649355334336512/alright-le...
  - notaustinpowers 3y ago
    No sourcable information on it. More so just experience and mumblings around Tumblr since I've been on there since 2011.

game_the0ry 3y ago

When the west opened trade to China, policy experts assumed China would become more liberal like the west. Instead, the west is becoming more like China. [1, 2, 3] [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrity-api-sounds-like-drm-for-the-web/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrit... [2] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/ready-for-your-eye-scan-worldcoin-launches-but-not-quite-worldwide/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/ready-for-your-e... [3] (countless more examples, especially recently...)

derefr 3y ago
China is becoming more liberal in the classical sense (more money accruing to regular "new money" entrepreneurs instead of to oligarchs); they just haven't hit the "borgeoisie-funded revolt against the aristocracy" phase of liberalization yet. Give them 50 years.
- Georgelemental 3y ago
  They hit it in the 90s, except it failed hard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests_and_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests...
  - Tuna-Fish 3y ago
    ... That really wasn't what the Tienanmen Square Protests were about, at all. The protest were a massive mixture of different ideologies, but the dominant ones were democratic politics, and communist economics, opposing the trend towards oligarchic/autocratic rule and liberalized economy.
    - aio2 3y ago
      And now look at what they got.
      - pokepim 3y ago

howinteresting 3y ago

Privacy. That's iPhone.

meowtimemania 3y ago

I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"? Do people like the wechat experience because you have one login and don't have to go through an onboarding process in every mini-app?

bunga-bunga 3y ago
> I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"? Why are you downloading apps from the App Store instead of running separate OSes? This is the same concept, just one level down. Really, WeChat is just a browser with extra APIs and a website catalog. > Do people like the wechat experience because you have one login and don't have to go through an onboarding process in every mini-app? I’m not fully familiar with its history, but from what I understand Tencent added more and more “apps” to their chat app and eventually let third parties into it. This is exactly what Facebook did in 2010: we also had third party “apps” on Facebook. They were also just iframed websites with extra APIs.
- Andrex 3y ago
  > I’m not fully familiar with its history, but from what I understand Tencent added more and more “apps” to their chat app and eventually let third parties into it. This is exactly what Facebook did in 2010: we also had third party “apps” on Facebook. They were also just iframed websites with extra APIs. It's crazy how long ago this feels. FarmVille legitimately took over the country for a bit.
oldgradstudent 3y ago
> I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"? The web browser is an everything app on your desktop. As Marc Andreessen said at the time: > Netscape will soon reduce Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers.
- gottorf 3y ago
  > As Marc Andreessen said at the time: >> Netscape will soon reduce Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers. It's funny how history proved him so wrong and so right at the same time.

znpy 3y ago

I don’t find that surprising at all. Apple and China are both regimes and it’s not surprising at all they go hand in hand.

lencastre 3y ago

Because Jina

chrononaut 3y ago

The concatenation of "Apple is" might make this the most egregious garden-path sentence[0] I have read in the last few months. I had to re-read this multiple times. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence

trompetenaccoun 3y ago

>And with Apple’s shareholders not in agreement to actually put their money where their mouth is when it comes to human rights, it’s not likely Apple is going to go against China anytime soon. Interesting link in that last paragraph: https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-rejects-freedom-of-expression https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-rejects-freedom-of-expressio...

bitwize 3y ago

Back in the 90s when the PlayStation was released, Sony Computer Entertainment America implemented rules about which sorts of games would and would not be approved: specifically, you needed to be developing 3D polygon games. If you were developing a sprite-based game, you were likely unable to get approval to publish it. We missed out on a lot of great Japanese sprite based games this way, simply because they didn't fit into SCEA's marketing strategy based around the idea that sprites are old hat, and the PlayStation is the sexy new console that leaves all that behind in favor of 3D polygons. Of course, Sony made exceptions to this policy for major publishers and their big-ticket franchises like Capcom with Street Fighter...

xxoo 3y ago

This article is obviously biased in every possible way to measure it. 1. WeChat is not the only app that comes with "mini program", Alipay for a big example. 2. WeChat is not the only app that delivers news and media information and consumes a huge amount of users's time, DouYin for a big example. Why mention and only mention political events when you are talking about an iOS app and Apple store censorship ? Or you're just merely talking about politics of your value.

ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago

>Owned by state-backed Tencent and increasingly privacy invasive and censorship-driven, why does WeChat why does Apple let Hmm.