![]() ![]() China, WeChat’s home ground, never went through the same desktop evolution – it jumped direct to mobile, where apps are more rigorously “sandboxed” in their interaction with other phone functions. Possibly it’s because we tore apps apart on the desktop Outlook’s ability to show documents was exploited by scripting viruses such as ILOVEYOU, so historically there’s caution around having too much capability inside an app. So why don’t we have a WeChat in the west? Facebook comes closest, but as noted above, it’s splitting apart on mobile. ![]() Connie Chan of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz wrote an astonished blogpost about its capability, noting that “while Facebook and WhatsApp measure growth by the number of daily users on their networks, WeChat cares more about how relevant and central is in addressing the daily, even hourly, needs of its users”. WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, dwarfs most western products both in scale – it has around 700 million active accounts – and ambition: despite being first released only in January 2011 as a text/voice/photo-sharing app, it has expanded to provide functionality so that you can order cabs, buy film tickets, play games, check in for flights, pay bills … the list goes on and on. Similarly on iOS, Apple has parcelled out the functions of the desktop iTunes to five apps – Music, Podcasts, Films, iTunes Store and App Store. But on mobile, the risks associated with overloading the user interface (user confusion and complexity of updates) mean that established products tend to splinter instead.įacebook has added news, video, audio and messaging more recently it took the brave decision on mobile to split Messenger (for person-to-person contact) off as a separate app. ![]() Photograph: Imaginechina/CorbisĮvery app, after all, wants to be the one where you spend all your time. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |