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WeChat's App Revolution

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Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#81

Post by miguelrochefort »

Markoff wrote: post #69
miguelrochefort wrote: post #51

I will ask this again. Why is nobody here interested in building one app that does it all? Nobody wants to have 100 apps on their phones, or create 1000 online accounts. Such an app would easily make most tech companies obsolete. What part do people not understand?

we have it, is just not app but it's called Android not sure what's the difference between having million apps and functions hidden within one app instead of having them separated between more apps which also helps with diversifying risks and it's easier to organize the thing is, people in West actually value their privacy sort off, while people in China are not even offered this option at table, so you end up with o…

By not depending on privacy, they benefit from much better user experience. I think that's a great trade-off.

Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#82

Post by Freak_NL »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #76
Freak_NL wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People here are probably on the cautious side of centralising all of their online identities and activities into one app. Our privacy is under enough threat as it is. Besides, I don't want to migrate everything I do online to a smartphone (it would have to be Android or IOS then, because that's all they support of course — vendor lock-in is not so great for innovation) or a sanctioned PC OS. In fact, most of the time…

I think that privacy is unsustainable. I don't think we should strive to protect it. We should work toward enabling people to live fully transparent lives. When I say "app", I mean all software including websites. The main problem to tackle is not a technical one, but a design one. It's with the UX fragmentation that I have a problem. A native mega-app that contains mini-apps with different UX is not better than what…

> We should work toward enabling people to live fully transparent lives.

Undesirable for most, harmful for many, and lethal for some.

I live in a fairly tolerant society as far as Earth standards go, but some things I will only share with a select few. Should my medical records be open to anyone? My banking statements? My sexual preferences and fantasies? That's absurd. It would ostracise a lot of people even in a nominally free society. In some less enlightened jurisdictions some of these will get you executed or lynched (ask any gay person in a Muslim country, or anyone critical of their government in a repressive regime).

Yet I might want to chat about some topics with like minded individuals (again, assume for the sake of argument that all of it is legal in my jurisdiction) under a pseudonym or anonymity; the internet is a wonderful place where this is possible — partly because I'm not doing everything through one megacorp's 'app'. I'd like to keep it that way.

> […] as there's not even a minimal set of guidelines that help unify the web experience.

Good. Our culture thrives by diversity. Innovation stagnates without it.

We standardise where necessary for mutual benefit and cooperation (e.g., HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; Unicode; or accessibility standards), and often we will imitate or copy what works (e.g., the 'hamburger menu', or sensible typography) but that doesn't mean every site or service or application should look the same and connect to the same set of identity providers.

You present a very radical viewpoint, and I applaud you for your fervour, but I suspect you are either very young, not a developer, or you haven't experienced the downside of the monopolistic behaviour of the world's Apples, Googles, and Microsofts yet.

Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#83

Post by zhengzhixuyao »

nneonneo wrote: post #14

WeChat's "App Revolution" is by no means a technical revolution, as several other commenters have pointed out. There's nothing new with embedding a web browser, nor with SSO, or integrated payments. The revolution is the fact that this is an app with an install base approaching one billion users (846M monthly active users as of Q3'16). Anything they do is potentially revolutionary by virtue of sheer scale. They are a…

The credit of wechat's success should goes to the Crony capitalism of Communist Party of China. It is indeed a tool of surveillance of Communist Party of China

Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#84

Post by dano »

Isn't it that WeChat is a trusted platform for apps whereas the preponderance of other places one can download apps are sketchy and usually deliver malware? Basically a monopoly central platform it would seem.

Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#86

Post by LiweiZ »

zhengzhixuyao wrote: post #83
nneonneo wrote: post #14

WeChat's "App Revolution" is by no means a technical revolution, as several other commenters have pointed out. There's nothing new with embedding a web browser, nor with SSO, or integrated payments. The revolution is the fact that this is an app with an install base approaching one billion users (846M monthly active users as of Q3'16). Anything they do is potentially revolutionary by virtue of sheer scale. They are a…

The credit of wechat's success should goes to the Crony capitalism of Communist Party of China. It is indeed a tool of surveillance of Communist Party of China

Wow, you created this account to just say this (noticed based on 政治需要, to meet political needs in English, your username). Being very cautious is a good habit. Not seeing this often these days. People in Chinese community are quite aware of what can not be talked publicly and simply shut those topics down themselves by ignoring everything related.

edit: added English translation.

Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#87

Post by ralfd »

fornever wrote: post #73
Markoff wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well if she doesn't mind reporting everything to Chinese government in that piece of spyware (you can't even launch it with blocked location permission) and have censored speech with deleted inappropriate Moments posts and PRIVATE communication, then it's nice app i guess

Maybe the US companies and government should have thought about that before making that behavior normal in the digital world.

In contrast to your sarcastic snark the normal behavior in the west is secure end-to-end encryption (iMessage, Whatsapp).

Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#88

Post by robjan »

Markoff wrote: post #72
robjan wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between China and North Korea's internet access. North Korea works on a "whitelist" basis, whereas China operates on a "blacklist" basis. The Chinese people have access to the majority of the internet but, for cultural and language reasons, are not interested in most Western websites. Yes, many western social media and news sites are blocked but they are not "the internet" and if you consider th…

please, i was living in China more than 5 years, Chinese government won't let me to video chat with my family, every single app was blocked unless i wanted my family to install Chinese spyware on their devices, even the Skype which is supposed to be not blocked is essentially slowed down to speed marking it useless for video pretty much every photo sharing website is blocked Chinese "internet" is essentially using wh…

I travel into the mainland regularly and use video and voice chat on WhatsApp all the time without any problems. Things are changing.

Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#89

Post by simonh »

narutouzumaki wrote: post #54
simonh wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife is Chinese but has lived in the UK since 2001 and is a British citizen. In the early days she talked about us moving to China some day, but now feels much more at home here. She absolutely loves WeChat and uses it all the time. She uses it to keep in touch with old friends in China and new Chinese friends in the UK. It also keeps her connected to contemporary Chinese culture. So even outside China, WhatsApp's…

I reckon you mean WeChat as well in your last sentence, not Whatsapp? Otherwise, please explain.

Ouch, slip of the fingers. I can't edit it now.

Re: WeChat's App Revolution

#90

Post by PerfectDlite »

robjan wrote: post #63
Markoff wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there is no such thing as internet in China, correct word here for North Korea 2.0 is intranet, it's like calling something with 20% milk fat content butter

There is a difference between China and North Korea's internet access. North Korea works on a "whitelist" basis, whereas China operates on a "blacklist" basis. The Chinese people have access to the majority of the internet but, for cultural and language reasons, are not interested in most Western websites. Yes, many western social media and news sites are blocked but they are not "the internet" and if you consider th…

> Yes, many western social media and news sites are blocked but they are not "the internet"

Says who?

> and if you consider them as such then the west has exactly the same problem as the one you have just described.

What? So, "the evil west" considers social media and news sites "not internet" and blocks access to them?

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