Exponent #113: WeChat, China, and Apple

Ben Thompson und James Allworth sprechen 60 Minuten über WeChat, Apples „Problem“ in China (Episode #113).

Noch detaillierter schrieb Connie Chan bereits vor zwei Jahren über die eine App, die dort alles kontrolliert.

The lightweight apps on WeChat are called “official accounts”. Approved by WeChat after a brief application process, there are well over 10 million of these official accounts on the platform — ranging from celebrities, banks, media outlets, and fashion brands to hospitals, drug stores, car manufacturers, internet startups, personal blogs, and more. It’s important to emphasize that these official accounts are nothing like verified accounts on U.S. social networks, where being “official” is mainly a badge of authenticity or identity verification. On WeChat, official accounts are approved to access exclusive APIs for payments, location, direct messages, voice messages, user IDs, and more.

When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China