Because Jina
Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
41–50 of 182 posts
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and trying to force every country around the world to adopt their 'values'. Hot take: Yes. Because classical liberalism, the free market, and bottom-up government has done more for the advancement of humankind than sharia law, tyrants, oligarchies, theocracies, or dictatorships have ever done. Let's stop pretending like all values have the same ethical valence.
> Hot take: Yes. Because classical liberalism, the free market, and bottom-up government has done more for the advancement of humankind than sharia law, tyrants, oligarchies, theocracies, or dictatorships have ever done. That's not 'the west' and has never been. The US was born protectionist and pretty much stayed protectionist til today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism_in_the_United_St... Of course today…
Many people (both poor and rich) are leaving china, places with sharia law, and moving to the west. Why are they leaving to the west? The west isn't perfect, but people seem to see it as an improvement to their homelands.
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#43I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"? Do people like the wechat experience because you have one login and don't have to go through an onboarding process in every mini-app?
> I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"?
Why are you downloading apps from the App Store instead of running separate OSes? This is the same concept, just one level down.
Really, WeChat is just a browser with extra APIs and a website catalog.
> Do people like the wechat experience because you have one login and don't have to go through an onboarding process in every mini-app?
I’m not fully familiar with its history, but from what I understand Tencent added more and more “apps” to their chat app and eventually let third parties into it. This is exactly what Facebook did in 2010: we also had third party “apps” on Facebook. They were also just iframed websites with extra APIs.
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Hot take: Yes. Because classical liberalism, the free market, and bottom-up government has done more for the advancement of humankind than sharia law, tyrants, oligarchies, theocracies, or dictatorships have ever done. That's not 'the west' and has never been. The US was born protectionist and pretty much stayed protectionist til today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism_in_the_United_St... Of course today…
Many people (both poor and rich) are leaving china, places with sharia law, and moving to the west. Why are they leaving to the west? The west isn't perfect, but people seem to see it as an improvement to their homelands.
> Many people (both poor and rich) are leaving china, places with sharia law, and moving to the west.
The countries with the highest per capita immigration are in the middle east, not in 'the west'.
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/mapped-immigration-by-co...
Do you think they are moving to the middle east because of their love of sharia law? Or do you think they are moving they for economic opportunities?
People move to 'the west' for the same reason tens of millions of europeans moved to america in the 19th and 20th century. For money. We were the land of milk and honey or that's what they were told. Do you think millions of italians, germans, irish, etc came to america for the nonexistent classic liberalism?
People come here for the economic opportunity that doesn't exist in their countries - much of the time because 'the west' invaded, destroyed or destabilized it. China being one of the many countries 'the west' invaded, destroyed and destabilized.
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#45I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"? Do people like the wechat experience because you have one login and don't have to go through an onboarding process in every mini-app?
> I don't totally understand the concept of having an everything app. Isn't the OS the "everything app"?
The web browser is an everything app on your desktop.
As Marc Andreessen said at the time:
> Netscape will soon reduce Windows to a poorly debugged set of device drivers.
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#46I'm not sure this article has the slam dunk it thinks it does. Those aren't "apps" they are at best "web apps". They use a JS framework and some special markup from what I can tell. In this sense WeChat is more akin to a web browser than having multiple "apps" inside it. > Since these are “apps within an app”, many of these mini-programs are flouting the App Store rules since they were not downloaded from the App Sto…
Regardless of its implementation, everything in the app is subject to the rule as long as it's distributed in the App Store. In fact, Apple tried to enforce the same rule on WeChat multiple times but gave up since it practically means giving up the entire China market.
> Regardless of its implementation
Implementation is very much part of the rules. Apps cannot download and execute external code… unless it’s JavaScript in a browser.
Nothing in the article suggests that WeChat apps are not plain websites, so it seems that they don’t know the rules nor the alleged rule breaker’s technical side.
I wouldn’t exclude that WeChat really does get a pass from Apple, but the article does not clarify this important point.
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many people (both poor and rich) are leaving china, places with sharia law, and moving to the west. Why are they leaving to the west? The west isn't perfect, but people seem to see it as an improvement to their homelands.
> Many people (both poor and rich) are leaving china, places with sharia law, and moving to the west. The countries with the highest per capita immigration are in the middle east, not in 'the west'. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/mapped-immigration-by-co... Do you think they are moving to the middle east because of their love of sharia law? Or do you think they are moving they for economic opportunities? People…
Your point is straight-up bonkers and the data you yourself cite disproves it. Comparing the UAE (one country, an outlier at that, due to their subsidized incentives) to the collective immigration to Australia + USA + Western Europe + Japan + South Korea is beyond disingenuous. But hey, you do you.
> much of the time because 'the west' invaded, destroyed or destabilized it
You know who destabilized my country? The USSR. I've heard nightmare stories from my grandparents and parents (who lived 35+ years under communism). Boy am I glad to be an American and I wouldn't give up my citizenship for anything. I'll gladly pay taxes even if end up living elsewhere.
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
WeChat is the "everything app" because it has a government monopoly. I'm sure there was and is some organic competition but it's also obvious they picked a winner and ran with it.
Can you tell us more about how the government picked the winner?
Under COVID, when being able to board public transport, enter venues, etc. required showing one’s health status from one’s phone, the Chinese state facilitated that through two apps in particular: WeChat and Alipay.
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are about ~2m apps on the iOS App Store. And if we assume on average 10 updates to each app then we have ~20m approvals/rejections. Given that the process involves real people it is only normal for there to be many inconsistencies and double standards at this scale. Especially when the rules have evolved over the last 15 years and you have app developers who like to push the limits of what's allowed.
the issue is that this double standard is conscious and intentional, rather than simply an artifact of probability
At the very beginning it likely conformed to all the rules as there likely wasn't much functionality in v1.0. By the time it attracted the attention of Apple decision makers, it was too sticky to ban as another user pointed out.
i.e. Wechat users would rather switch to Android than lose the app.
I guess the lesson is that exceptions will be made if you can grow an app literally a million fold in a few years and become a vital part of your user's day-to-day lives.
Re: Apple’s strict on App Store rules but gives WeChat a free pass (2020)
#50When the west opened trade to China, policy experts assumed China would become more liberal like the west. Instead, the west is becoming more like China. [1, 2, 3] [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrit... [2] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/07/ready-for-your-e... [3] (countless more examples, especially recently...)
China is becoming more liberal in the classical sense (more money accruing to regular "new money" entrepreneurs instead of to oligarchs); they just haven't hit the "borgeoisie-funded revolt against the aristocracy" phase of liberalization yet. Give them 50 years.
They hit it in the 90s, except it failed hard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests...