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You can buy plane tickets, railway tickets, book hotels on wechat via popular 3rd party booking platforms. I think there are first party integrations in wechat

You can buy plane tickets, railway tickets, book hotels on wechat via popular 3rd party booking platforms. I think there are first party integrations in wechat app, go to Me - Pay and Services, you can see a bunch of them.

klausa 2y ago
Sorry, just to clarify — I meant examples of services that "feel" nice to interact with in the app; not examples of what they can be used for.
- scotty79 2y ago
  It's a bit like asking which power company has pretty technicians.
  - klausa 2y ago
    We're in a thread talking about a technology that purports to make creating "native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website"; and the parent claimed that the Alipay/WeChats mini-app stacks are similar. I don't think asking for examples of this resulting in an experience that's pleasant is unreasonable?
    - afavour 2y ago
      I think the point OP is making is that the relative pleasantry of the experience isn't as important for end users as it is for us developers. My anecdotal experience bears that out: I shudder when I see a web-heavy native app, my non-tech friends don't bat an eyelid. People learn UIs, no matter how janky, very quickly if the end goal is important to them.
      - scotty79 2y ago
        I think my point was that an application that exists, is up to date and works is a better application than the one that doesn't exist or is stale because it's harder to write and maintain but feels (or would feel if it existed) nice and polished. For practical purposes like buying stuff or accessing information I want practical applications that can be quickly iterated on.
  - gadflyinyoureye 2y ago
    FPL. Tone bodies with good tans. Don't see that with IP&L.
  - 1shooner 2y ago
    Well, do those WeChat services have competition? That's where I've seen the push for better UX: it's a signal to users that your product is overall higher quality. So not so much 'pretty power company technicians' and more 'Is the lobby of the hotel clean?'.
- paradite 2y ago
  I mean those 1st party integrations directly listed in WeChat services page are probably good examples of services that "feel" nice to interact, because they are used by millions of people everyday and they are need to optimized and polished to be able to serve millions of users. Here's a screenshot of the list, if you want to Google and check out some of them: https://imgur.com/a/KKEdliE https://imgur.com/a/KKEdliE
  - mathverse 2y ago
    Minions of people use SAP daily that does not mean it's a nice thing to interact with.
    - paradite 2y ago
      I agree that numbers alone might not mean much, but I do think B2C apps with millions of users have a higher bar in terms of design and polish compared to B2B/ERP apps. Also, fixed typo!
      - mathverse 2y ago
        But it's not like you can choose in China either :)
        TeMPOraL 2y ago
        It's not like you can choose in the West either, either :). Number one goal of any software service today is to make its offering exclusive in some way - exclusive content, exclusive deals, exclusive integrations, exclusive set of participants (network effects), going super-broad super fast because infinite VC money lets you keep operating at a loss indefinitely, etc.
        YuukiRey 2y ago
        You're making it sound as if the difference in choice between China and western countries is negligible. Surely that's not the case? If every VC company tries to pull you into their walled garden, I can still choose from among a variety of said walled gardens. I could be wrong of course, since I don't know how many AliPay and WeChat competitors there are.

klausa 2y ago

Sorry, just to clarify — I meant examples of services that "feel" nice to interact with in the app; not examples of what they can be used for.

scotty79 2y ago
It's a bit like asking which power company has pretty technicians.
- klausa 2y ago
  We're in a thread talking about a technology that purports to make creating "native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website"; and the parent claimed that the Alipay/WeChats mini-app stacks are similar. I don't think asking for examples of this resulting in an experience that's pleasant is unreasonable?
  - afavour 2y ago
    I think the point OP is making is that the relative pleasantry of the experience isn't as important for end users as it is for us developers. My anecdotal experience bears that out: I shudder when I see a web-heavy native app, my non-tech friends don't bat an eyelid. People learn UIs, no matter how janky, very quickly if the end goal is important to them.
    - scotty79 2y ago
      I think my point was that an application that exists, is up to date and works is a better application than the one that doesn't exist or is stale because it's harder to write and maintain but feels (or would feel if it existed) nice and polished. For practical purposes like buying stuff or accessing information I want practical applications that can be quickly iterated on.
- gadflyinyoureye 2y ago
  FPL. Tone bodies with good tans. Don't see that with IP&L.
- 1shooner 2y ago
  Well, do those WeChat services have competition? That's where I've seen the push for better UX: it's a signal to users that your product is overall higher quality. So not so much 'pretty power company technicians' and more 'Is the lobby of the hotel clean?'.
paradite 2y ago
I mean those 1st party integrations directly listed in WeChat services page are probably good examples of services that "feel" nice to interact, because they are used by millions of people everyday and they are need to optimized and polished to be able to serve millions of users. Here's a screenshot of the list, if you want to Google and check out some of them: https://imgur.com/a/KKEdliE https://imgur.com/a/KKEdliE
- mathverse 2y ago
  Minions of people use SAP daily that does not mean it's a nice thing to interact with.
  - paradite 2y ago
    I agree that numbers alone might not mean much, but I do think B2C apps with millions of users have a higher bar in terms of design and polish compared to B2B/ERP apps. Also, fixed typo!
    - mathverse 2y ago
      But it's not like you can choose in China either :)
      - TeMPOraL 2y ago
        It's not like you can choose in the West either, either :). Number one goal of any software service today is to make its offering exclusive in some way - exclusive content, exclusive deals, exclusive integrations, exclusive set of participants (network effects), going super-broad super fast because infinite VC money lets you keep operating at a loss indefinitely, etc.
        YuukiRey 2y ago
        You're making it sound as if the difference in choice between China and western countries is negligible. Surely that's not the case? If every VC company tries to pull you into their walled garden, I can still choose from among a variety of said walled gardens. I could be wrong of course, since I don't know how many AliPay and WeChat competitors there are.