On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
blog.ycombinator.com
On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
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Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#2Although WeChat has less users than Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, WeChat is lightyears ahead of what the west can offer , in terms of product. It has many many useful features and is smooth, reliable. Even WhatsApp and Messenger are copying WeChat. One of the examples is WeChat payment. You can send money to any contact as a text message.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#3Although WeChat has less users than Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, WeChat is lightyears ahead of what the west can offer , in terms of product. It has many many useful features and is smooth, reliable. Even WhatsApp and Messenger are copying WeChat. One of the examples is WeChat payment. You can send money to any contact as a text message.
you can make payments in messenger too...
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#4Although WeChat has less users than Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, WeChat is lightyears ahead of what the west can offer , in terms of product. It has many many useful features and is smooth, reliable. Even WhatsApp and Messenger are copying WeChat. One of the examples is WeChat payment. You can send money to any contact as a text message.
you can make payments in messenger too... https://www.facebook.com/help/863171203733904/
Actually, WeChat had that feature way before Messenger did. Messenger basically copied that feature from WeChat.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#5Although WeChat has less users than Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, WeChat is lightyears ahead of what the west can offer , in terms of product. It has many many useful features and is smooth, reliable. Even WhatsApp and Messenger are copying WeChat. One of the examples is WeChat payment. You can send money to any contact as a text message.
you can make payments in messenger too... https://www.facebook.com/help/863171203733904/
`You can send or receive money in Messenger (example: send your friend $10 for lunch or receive $500 from your roommate for rent) after you add a debit card issued by a US bank to your account.`
It requires you to bind your account with a debit card. I am using WeChat for years but I never attach my debit card to it, because I do not have a China debit card. When I need e-money, I just ask my family or give my friends some cash and they transfer e-money to me. That's all. Then I can use the e-money for offline shopping, online shopping, sending Hongbao (as gift-card). I do not understand why debit card is required.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
you can make payments in messenger too... https://www.facebook.com/help/863171203733904/
`You can send or receive money in Messenger (example: send your friend $10 for lunch or receive $500 from your roommate for rent) after you add a debit card issued by a US bank to your account.` It requires you to bind your account with a debit card. I am using WeChat for years but I never attach my debit card to it, because I do not have a China debit card. When I need e-money, I just ask my family or give my friend…
How does the money enter the network in the first place? You can use services like Venmo without linking payment information, but obviously you can't withdraw your balance.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#7As a China-approved messenger application would anyone trust this as their primary mode of communication?
This is not meant to be snarky or biased. Considering the control China has on citizen communication (eg the great firewall), what guarantee does anyone using the app have that all data isn't being fed through the Chinese version of the NSA?
Also: how much of the growth can be attributed to less competition in the Chinese app market?
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
you can make payments in messenger too... https://www.facebook.com/help/863171203733904/
`You can send or receive money in Messenger (example: send your friend $10 for lunch or receive $500 from your roommate for rent) after you add a debit card issued by a US bank to your account.` It requires you to bind your account with a debit card. I am using WeChat for years but I never attach my debit card to it, because I do not have a China debit card. When I need e-money, I just ask my family or give my friend…
So where is that e-money coming from? You must be linking something... a bank account perhaps?
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#9As a China-approved messenger application would anyone trust this as their primary mode of communication? This is not meant to be snarky or biased. Considering the control China has on citizen communication (eg the great firewall), what guarantee does anyone using the app have that all data isn't being fed through the Chinese version of the NSA? Also: how much of the growth can be attributed to less competition in th…
In short, there is no guarantee. Any message could be deleted at any time for no reason.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#10Basically : They design for value for users instead of, and they add features relentlessly instead of hitting product-market fit and stopping development until a competitor comes out with something good (looking at FB).
This is probably due to the high level of competition and limited marketshare the firms in China are looking at. FB and Western firms want to rule the world, because they can, so they are still focusing on growth with iniciatives like internet.org. Chinese firms know their market is China, and they understand China, and it will be hard for them to export, so when they grow as big as WeChat the options are more limited.
Their option was to build a whole ecosystem around it that could capture maximum user value. They also seem to prize their users religiously, which is great for them. But it might not have happened for them that way either if they were hopeful of capturing the entire world.