Earlier quoted context omitted.
In short, there is no guarantee. Any message could be deleted at any time for no reason.
How often do messages get deleted?
Try sending a sensitive keyword.
On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
21–30 of 149 posts
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#22As 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…
There is ridiculous amount of competition an innovation in the Chinese app market. Every time I visit China, I'm surprised by something new the folks can do with mobile.
That innovation is starting to spill into India with Chinese company investments. A year ago, mobile payments in small shops and businesses were ubiquitous only in China, now they're proliferating in Indian cities too.
The Western markets are quite tame in comparison.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#23"WeChat defies the popular belief that growth is all about user growth. Instead they think about growth as increasing value (e.g., the number of tasks WeChat can do in the daily lives of users). Unlike other social products, WeChat does not only measure growth by number of users or messages sent. Instead they also focus on measuring how deeply is the product engaged in every aspect of daily life (e.g., the number of…
> It has become a commonplace that WeChat is incredible, and everyone over here wants to build it.
By expanding their platforms into other tasks that other people already know how to do better, do competitively, and have a greater mindshare of.
It's possible for two different environments with two different sets of ideals to exist without either one being "more right".
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#24Although 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.
> WeChat is lightyears ahead of what the west can offer , in terms of product. It has many many useful features and is smooth, reliable
As a westerner, is there like a list of such use cases to help get the point across? The things I've read so far here sound like the kind of things we already have offerings for too (making travel easier or etc), just not usually all under one roof.
Sending money via text is a great example, but reading more examples would be helpful in understanding, which is why I ask.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#25> Tencent was already one of China’s top internet companies in 2010, and the biggest social company even before WeChat was launched.
> At the time, Tencent’s products had ~650M monthly active Instant Messenger accounts.
Lesson 1: Start with 650m active users
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#26> Lesson 1: Build Your Own Competition. This lesson is reminiscent of Amazon’s move ... and Uber’s move from town cars to UberX. If you don’t create a culture of disrupting yourself, then a competitor is likely to disrupt you.
That is more or less what Travis Kalanick explained to the driver Kamel their decision to introduce UberX after UberBlack during that controversial video shot in an Uber ride 2 month ago.[1]
[1]: https://www.recode.net/2017/2/28/14766964/video-uber-travis-...
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#27As 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…
There is ridiculous amount of competition an innovation in the Chinese app market. Every time I visit China, I'm surprised by something new the folks can do with mobile. That innovation is starting to spill into India with Chinese company investments. A year ago, mobile payments in small shops and businesses were ubiquitous only in China, now they're proliferating in Indian cities too. The Western markets are quite…
Good point. I said app market, but I specifically meant messaging app market.
Still a good point, just because they don't have Signal or Facebook (not that I'd trust it) doesn't mean they don't have strong competition in their own field of approved apps.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#28Having lived in China for 6 months I can say: if you build a mobile OS to just run WeChat embedded. It would work for 90% of what average users (so no, not you here on HN) want from a phone.
Seriously. you can message, voice chat, call, video call, order plane tickets, split bills, order stuff online, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, share photo's like FB timewall, create publics chatrooms, pay in physical stores and so much more.
That app was ridiculous. Miles ahead of even the biggest dream of any app-central company in the Western world. They built up an entire ecosystem in one app.
Obviously, it drained a lot of battery on Android. But Android itself is miles behind iOS anyway, since there is no Google in China and Android today is pretty much an empty shell without GPlay Services / Framework.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#29> Tencent was already one of China’s top internet companies in 2010, and the biggest social company even before WeChat was launched. > At the time, Tencent’s products had ~650M monthly active Instant Messenger accounts. Lesson 1: Start with 650m active users
No. WeChat started from scratch. None of the QQ users were ported to WeChat on day 1. You had to create a different account based on your mobile phone number just like any other mobile apps. You can, of course, use QQ credentials to login AFTER you created your WeChat account but you still have to create a WeChat account first and then link it to QQ. None of 650MM users were automatically created initially AFAIK. It was a "bold move" to cannibalize Tencent's own users in a way, after all.
Re: On Growing: Lessons from the Story of WeChat
#30It really depends on your use cases.
WeChat fits well in China as it is building a product exactly adding value for China culture and lifestyle there.
You can make utilities payment via WeChat, but I would much prefer to have a platform automate this for me and not part of an IM.
The West has been following the UNIX philosophy of doing 1 thing and does it very well.
Perhaps WeChat is not just an app, but an eco-system. As for UX on strictly IM functionality, I would prefer WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Telegram etc as it is much "lean" and lightweight to use.
I personally don't think WeChat can be successfully replicate their model to everywhere in the world.
However, a lesson to learn for everyone (including WeChat), build local product. Builds product that fits everyone's need accommodating their culture and lifestyle.