WeChat is Watching: Living in China with the app that knows everything about me

Post by adinobro » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 1:01 PM UTC

loceng wrote: post #12

spectramax wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides payments, WeChat is inextricably tied to everything you do in China from chatting with your friends to buying a movie ticket to visa renewals. I've spent over 400 nights in Chinese cities and I depend on WeChat like I depend on water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeChat#Features

And how long, if not already - likely once their people are acclimatized to the idea of 'social rating' system - before they start subtly or aggressively warning people, swaying their behaviour, of potential for their rating to go down if associating with X who isn't using apps. A digitized version of Nazi Germany with mass censorship capabilities really is terrifying.

Post by bamboozled » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 1:04 PM UTC

th3iedkid wrote: post #29

jcbrand wrote: post #19

> At 9:27, once I’ve brushed my teeth, answered a few messages, and wiped the sleep from my eyes, I order a coffee through WeChat. There’s a payments window on the app, and when you click on it you see various options, some proprietary to WeChat and some which are independent apps that run on WeChat’s platform. I open the Meituan delivery app and scroll through all the coffee options around me. I order an Americano.…

>Is it too much effort to just make your own coffee in your own apartment? Does that now also have to be delivered to you? The amount of waste involved in this just boggles my mind. Not from China but have been different phases of life where have either preferred to have early morning coffe delivered/fetched/made myself in my apartment. Different priorities would drove the choices for me. Pricing differences between…

Post by drubbo » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 1:08 PM UTC

jcbrand wrote: post #19

> At 9:27, once I’ve brushed my teeth, answered a few messages, and wiped the sleep from my eyes, I order a coffee through WeChat. There’s a payments window on the app, and when you click on it you see various options, some proprietary to WeChat and some which are independent apps that run on WeChat’s platform. I open the Meituan delivery app and scroll through all the coffee options around me. I order an Americano.…

Post by noitsnot » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 1:18 PM UTC

bamboozled wrote: post #63

th3iedkid wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Is it too much effort to just make your own coffee in your own apartment? Does that now also have to be delivered to you? The amount of waste involved in this just boggles my mind. Not from China but have been different phases of life where have either preferred to have early morning coffe delivered/fetched/made myself in my apartment. Different priorities would drove the choices for me. Pricing differences between…

I’m curious, do people even enjoying drinking nice / real coffee anymore when drinking from Starbucks or have it delivered and sipping it at your desk or in the elevator, or is this just some kind of habit like smoking? Why not just wash down a caffeine pill with warm glass of water for the kick and move when time pressed?

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 13, 2019, 1:21 PM UTC

ConfusedDog wrote: post #47

> If it wasn’t for the fact that I grew up in London and use a VPN to jump the great firewall to keep in touch with my friends at home and use Google, I could go entire days without leaving WeChat. I wonder what VPN people use in China to access Google. When I was there last month, I couldn't find a single one that worked for more than a few days.