Like with China, people try to explain Japan with "culture", which always results in a circular argument: China/Japan is this way, because that's what China/Jap

Like with China, people try to explain Japan with "culture", which always results in a circular argument: China/Japan is this way, because that's what China/Japan is like. An example would be "super apps". If you google this term you will see countless results that say "Chinese users prefer one app that does everything; they are also better at handling information density." The argument becomes: Super apps exist because Chinese users like Super apps. This is wrong. If you ever talk to a single Chinese user you will learn that none of them like these types of apps. Read the comments here as an example: https://x.com/felixleezd/status/2039008846514119046 https://x.com/felixleezd/status/2039008846514119046 > "No it doesnt. As a Chinese, these apps are shitty to use and I struggle with finding what I need most of the time." > 'Lol no. > Its just bloat without careful thoughts. > "We have this new product, pls add it to the main screen, pls send a notification to all our users to try it out, pls my promotion depend on it" > You can get away with this for decades if the main moat is strong enough.' > "I hate them, full of shitty ads and ads and ads. Basically, every app wants to lend you money, which is a total disaster." There's not a single user that likes "super apps." Then why do they exist? Because of the business environment. In the 2010s, post-iPhone and when smartphones became everyman's personal computing device, VC investment into China skyrocketed, culminating in 2015. Alibaba alone launched something like 50 new services during this decade. A few giant companies remained while the other startup tech companies failed; they divided the market among themselves, and in order to increase LTV per user they started bootstrapping their new services by putting links into them inside their existing platforms. Taobao adding links to Alipay and so on. So "super apps" exist in China because of the business environment. The apps are literally designed by KPIs: get more users to click on this button and open this other service. It has so far been impossible for any startup to disrupt the BAT giants, so they can keep adding more and more services to the same apps and as a result they get more cluttered. The reason I'm making the analogy about China is that the same is certainly true for Japan. It is a steady-state, non-dynamic market where companies that were created decades ago remain and can expand horizontally. It has nothing to do with Japanese culture.