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Comment by rahimnathwani | Hacker News Reader

From the article you linked: "Back in March, WeChat banned Uber, a significant channel for how Uber communicates with customers."

The most that WeChat could do is (i) stop Uber from sending messages/promotions to people subscribed to Uber's WeChat account, and (ii) stop uber.com URLs from being displayed in the built-in browser.

Neither of these would affect customers' ability to (i) download the Uber app, (ii) book Uber rides.

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According to [0], while Google Play seems to be usable in China, Chinese internet companies own the app store market. So that's another potential battleground maybe? Tencent and Baidu seem to be significant players there, Tencent being bigger but neither being the biggest.

[0] http://www.newzoo.com/free/rankings/top-10-android-app-store...

Apple's app store is still in its hands. And because of the fragmentation of the app store, people are more inclined to download app from the website of the maker instead of some "store" that injects "non-kosher" stuff in the app

I confirm we can not download the app through Google Play. It also does not work for my device (Android Nexus 5) in Shanghai due to the connectivity with Google Maps. It is a pain I must say, but most people find workaround.

Are you sure about the second point? I use Uber on a Nexus 5 and it works fine in Shanghai, without requiring VPN. IIRC Uber now uses Baidu maps in China.

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