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What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

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Re: What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

#21

Post by sho_hn »

tensor wrote: post #7
lvturner wrote: post #4

I only skim read this, but it feels like you could swap "WeChat" for any messaging system or social networking site

That's definitely not true. WeChat has a bunch of ecommerce stuff built in among other features. You can pay for stuff on WeChat and there are stores. It even has translation built in to facilitate buying and selling between people from different countries. I think there are also apps and other stuff there too. It's more like a chat app that became an ecommerce and mini-app platform.

It's similar with KakaoTalk in Korea, which now also has a payment system in addition to acting as a regular bank, and allows you to buy various things including, say, hairdresser appointments. 93% smartphone market share.

Re: What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

#22

Post by [deleted] »

foenix wrote: post #8
krcz wrote: post #5

Telegram was on a good path to become WeChat replacement, with its Telegram Open Network blockchain an Gram cryptocurrency coming and plans to add wide range of services including decentralized storage, web pages and payment channels. But now it looks that part has been killed by SEC, so the niche is still unoccupied.

Do you have more info about being killed by the SEC? I'm curious about this because I was looking forward to a Western Competitor to WeChat.

[deleted]

Re: What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

#24

Post by throwaway6250 »

People seem to have the idea that WeChat is some sort of amazing application -- it's not. In fact the only reason why it has the market share it does in China is simply because all competitors are blocked.

Some of WeChat's real pain points are: - No backing up your messages to the cloud like WhatsApp or having them loaded from the server like Facebook Messenger. Moving all your messages from one phone to another is quite the ordeal .

- Complete disregard for platform standards. Specifically notifications on Android and Windows 10 are atrocious. Both WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have notifications that are well integrated with the especially the Android notification system, WeChat notifications however are not.

-A lot of nice to have chat features are either non existent or have just recently been introduced. For example a poor implementation of quoting a previous message was just introduced like a month ago, and there are no reactions for specific messages -- and no timeline for implementing them either.

WeChat does have quite a bit of different "apps" built into it, but not really more convenient to use than the separate apps are. It's mainly just a casualty of China's lack of anti monopoly legislation.On my phone I have Alipay (the other half of china's online payment duopoly) installed together with WeChat, and almost always use it for payment (It's pretty much accepted everywhere WeChat is)

Re: What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

#25

Post by decanus »

m11a wrote: post #14

I think people that feel WeChat is simply a social network don't understand WeChat. Though the article doesn't say this, the comments here and popular opinion generally think that. From my time visiting China I'm not sure it's possible to live, in the urban areas, without WeChat. Payments are basically all through WeChat; I found places that didn't take Visa/Mastercard (or even know what those were, although that may…

The article doesn't really mention blockchain other than 2 times quickly, it seems like everyone in this comment section seems to believe that though as if they said you MUST use blockchain at every step of building something like this.

Re: What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

#27

Post by robjan »

sho_hn wrote: post #21
tensor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's definitely not true. WeChat has a bunch of ecommerce stuff built in among other features. You can pay for stuff on WeChat and there are stores. It even has translation built in to facilitate buying and selling between people from different countries. I think there are also apps and other stuff there too. It's more like a chat app that became an ecommerce and mini-app platform.

It's similar with KakaoTalk in Korea, which now also has a payment system in addition to acting as a regular bank, and allows you to buy various things including, say, hairdresser appointments. 93% smartphone market share.

Also Line, which is also used in many parts of East Asia.

Re: What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

#28

Post by t0astbread »

ausjke wrote: post #20

LINE, whatsapp etc are catching up wechat. Instead of cloning wechat, an alternative would be developing a proxy between IM apps, i.e. all wechat messages can be forwarded to whatsapp so it become part of whatsapp, well, kind of, it's painful to use whatsapp, LINE, telegram, wechat at the same time, need something to "unite" them so we can go to one place and do it all.

Wasn't XMPP supposed to do something like that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP#Connecting_to_other_proto...

Re: What Would a WeChat Replacement Need?

#30

Post by wolco »

timwaagh wrote: post #16

I would be interested in a we hat replacement, but as soon as I read ethereum I thought: nah. Cryptocurrencies are just not compatible with mainstream consumption. Why? Because I get paid in euros. And you might get paid in dollars. And a wechat user gets paid in Yuan. But nobody gets paid in ethereum.

That's not true anymore. I've been paided and knows others who continue to be paid in bitcoin.
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