How WeChat Came to Rule China
theverge.com
theverge.com
This is not accurate. Along with WeChat and QQ, people can freely use Skype and MSN messenger in China. The success behind WeChat and QQ relies on their rich features, fast iterations, etc.
I still remember that during the 360 vs Tencent event, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/360_v._Tencent, a lot of people switched to Skype as their communication tool to against the company Tencent, but not long after that people switched back to WeChat and QQ. It's simply because WeChat and QQ are easier to use.
Interesting YC blog about Tencent and WeChat. [1]
Really?
I am not sure about Skype which is not even a strong contender anymore in our mobile generation, but WhatsApp is definitely blocked by China[1]. And MSN was dead long ago.
[1]: https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/25/whatsapp-blocked-in-china/
Have WhatsApp spent effort to build "that product" to China, and they would fail on it.
And I don't see WhatsApp is super pissed that they lost this 1.3B market anyway.
And in a hindsight, it is probably better for WhatsApp to not build "that app" for China. Imagine spending all those resources, money into a product and simply turn off by China government overnight. It's a big loss for that investment.
TL;DR do not enter China if you haven't yet finished conquered the entire world.
When I send a message, why does it need to be so bloated. I just wanna send a message. Does being lightweight a feature too?
From the UX point of view, it's pretty lightweight for most common operations. Goes into the app, finds the contact, sends message, done. There is virtually no difference between WeChat, WhatsApp, and Apple's own Messages. For many other operations that are less common, WeChat is easier to use and manage (e.g. sending emojis, voice memo, photos).
From an app size point of view, I just checked on my iPhone. WeChat takes up 157.3MB, whereas WhatsApp takes up 105.9MB. The difference seems minor (just a few photos).
I have that Facebook messenger even has draw over other apps permission on Android. I hate the pop up chat. Am I out of touch?
Also, there was a post on here highlighting Japanese web design and you might say it's also a kitchen sink approach. And then someone posted, or the article updated and added(I don't remember exactly) some nice links to show that the exact same design phenomenon exists in major websites in Taiwan, Korea, and China.
We might theorize that users in these particular markets might want everything but the kitchen sink in one app, or one website. I'm not saying that's necessarily the case, but there's definitely some indicators.
Would be very interesting if it's a case of actual rejection of western style minimalistic designs, rather than something like it being all they've known and thus have simply gotten used to.
Let see... - Why do I care about reading someone's life moment on an IM? WhatsApp also tried this and another reason I think it is now heading to the "dark side" - Why do I said... Request a Didi on an IM ? - Why would I care to use it to pay for something? I just want to message someone. - Why do I even care about these features? I just want to message someone... - In fact, why do I care about so much eye-killing gifs/emoji
An IM is an IM. But then I grew up in the western world, so my opinions might not apply to everyone. But I am sure as hell share someone's opinion on this.
Is it bloated? Hell yeah, can it still make a case that Chinese general population would prefer bloated single-app? Sure, but that doesn't mean I like it.
You care that the other person will be on it too. But why will they be on it？
Mass adoption isnt just about what you want, its about what other people on the same service want as well. It has to offer a superset of your wants, her wants, his wants, etc or you will love it, but they will go elsewhere. Its not all about you. Having everyone on it is THE killer feature.
So that's bloated then ?
How do you distinguish between featureful and bloated? What are the criteria you would use to tell one from the other?
trust me I tried when I lived there, messages work but forget about video and audio, only international service which worked was Skype but even that fails most of the time, so your option are obscure messengers and less known webrtc sites
When Skype introduced end-to-end encryption the government tried to block it, but the backlash from businesses in China was so big they had to unblock it.
WeChat is great, but pretend there is no protectionism around it is also disingenuous.
Disclaimer: Chinese.
When Google refuse to follow that, they are just simply not allowed. I have seen foreign companies built products in China but they all have to agree to these censorship laws.
Disclaimer: Chinese too. :-)
That is not completely right. People switch back because most of their contacts are using QQ and WeChat.
And that's actually why people keep using Tencent product -- because all your friends are using it, your mom using it, your boss using it, so you have to. In fact, I think most of those IM's gaining their user base because of this.
Also, encouraging Chinese people using domestic services is good for government, as they had better control of those services. So they did, by selectively making foreign services unstable.
Censorship is not just a mean of control, it's also a business: Government wants control, company wants money, so they formed an alliance to get what they want.
Is it cultural? I use signal. Most of my contacts don't use signal. I've forced the people I talk to the most to get signal. For everyone else, I'll use WhatsApp or just text. I don't need everyone to use something for me to use that thing. In fact, the day my mum joins Snapchat will be the day I'll uninstall it for good.
In China, we have a some sort of social phenomenon called "Herd behavior"[0], simply put: If something is popular in crowd, then it tend to be more popular.
Also, I found that most Chinese people are lack of motion of trying something new: If something works, then we'll keep using it and stop worrying about it until it breaks.
> I've forced the people I talk to the most to get signal.
In China, this hardly works, because people you try to convincing may also binded to WeChat by their contacts. So a easier choice for them is just to silently ditch you.
(Of course, dad and mom are more likely to stick with whatever chat service you're using, so :DDDD)
BTW: There are no encrypted chat service in China, and Chinese people don't care too much of their privacy (By western standard).
So if you tell them: We should not let government listening our conversations, let's use Signal! You will usually get replies like: Yes, just let them listen, I have nothing to hide. And keep using WeChat.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_behavior#Everyday_decisio...
QQ vs (Whatsapp, Skype, MSN messager, etc)
WeChat vs (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc)
so yeah, technically you are correct, it's not blocked, it just doesn't work which is de facto same thing for end user deciding what app to use
lived in China for many years, it was frustrating I could not talk with my family abroad, apparently too dangerous for Chinese Gov to let me talk with my parents and I am not gonna ask people outside China to install spyware like QQ or WeChat. the saddest part it's unless you wanna completely cut the ties you still need to keep it installed like my wife does (I cut the ties with non VPN folks), any other reasonable option would be freezing and unfreezing on demand which kinda ruins messaging experience and might as well use email
Make China Great Again?
You use it to pay in restaurants, buy metro tickets, rent a bike, order a taxi, order courier services etc. In China it's not an app, it's the app. If they integrated Meituan (local recommendations and discount coupons) you wouldn't need any other app to survive.
“Tencent is a content partner of The Verge in China.”
Thus a large portion of some individuals where basically introduced to modern computing via phones and via chat and businesses started advertising "Chat-first" as well.
I've seen roughly the same in India with WhatsApp, but with a lot less discrete functionality.
Feel free to correct my theory though, it's mostly outside observation...
Note that QQ and WeChat are both Tencent, they aren't meant to be in direct competition with each other.
I think the two main contenders for payment apps are Wexin and Alipay (支付宝). Both are vastly more popular than QQ these days.
WeChat and its dominance in its early days to a number of factors. Primarily in its infancy this is: good advertising, uniqueness compared to QQ (think MySpace -> FB), solid interface and voice memos. Voice memos were a killer feature that is massively more popular than in England (my experience) and I assume most of the West. Later on payments were added which enables anyone to have a business (receive money for services) and huge convenience for shopping or sending money to friends.
Alipay at the moment is less focused on social media like WeChat and more on interlinking services (Cinema, Shopping, Mobile payments, Utilities, Lifestyle etc). Also there's a massive advertisement campaign driving its use; currently each 24 hours users can scan a red envelope (红包) QR code an receive credit on their balance. I've receive $4~5 dollars a day, with an average of $1. Thats a free breakfast for most people.
Let's say you wanted to write 我很喜欢吃汉堡 (I really like eating hamburgers), you can get away with just typing 'w h x h ch han bao' and predictive text gets you the entire sentence.
Chinese text is well optimized towards readability and information density, at the expense of taking a lot of work to manually write, but that calculus completely changes if your writing system is smart enough.
I think voice messaging took off in China mainly because they don't have the same cultural barriers to voice messaging that we do.
I love China, but I do believe the culture of apathy towards others that are not family have helped this. 没办法！
It's not considered awkward/strange to just chat with any business (restaurant, online shop) owner before deciding to spend your money. People just love comparing prices for everything and doing "background checks" all the time.
And every significant transaction required you to provide ID, which is currently supporting China ID, some apps do have support for foreign passports, but do you want to share your passports to those China apps?
SEPA & the EU is the special case exception I've found.
Nope, that exception don't even existed in Alipay/WeChat Pay as well :-) Being foreigner in China sucks.
Yes, being a foreigner in China does suck but not for this case.
Having a "work" visa is possible though.
Please stop spreading rumours about China when it's not true.
And no, we’re not trying to spread rumors :)
How is this architected? Is there a platform/app separation, or just a pile of spaghetti, or something in between?
[1] http://blog.wechat.com/2015/05/21/voiceprint-the-new-wechat-...
Bummer, not what I thought :) http://www.irchelp.org/clients/unix/weechat.html