<story><title>WeChat&apos;s App Revolution</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-19/wechat-s-app-revolution</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nneonneo</author><text>WeChat&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;App Revolution&amp;quot; is by no means a &lt;i&gt;technical&lt;/i&gt; revolution, as several other commenters have pointed out. There&amp;#x27;s nothing new with embedding a web browser, nor with SSO, or integrated payments.&lt;p&gt;The revolution is the fact that this is an app with an install base approaching one billion users (846M monthly active users as of Q3&amp;#x27;16). Anything they do is potentially revolutionary by virtue of sheer scale. They are a platform as influential and powerful as Facebook is in the West. If they decide they want to compete with the platform&amp;#x27;s application store, they will provide strong competition.&lt;p&gt;WeChat has already beaten out most other payment methods in China for day-to-day commerce - credit cards, cash, cheque, etc. It has beaten out most social networks there (after the introduction of the &amp;quot;Moments&amp;quot; feature), and all other instant messaging services including SMS. Taking over other application functions is simply a natural progression for the rather unstoppable juggernaut at this point - and third party app developers will be happy to oblige.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>simonh</author><text>My wife is Chinese but has lived in the UK since 2001 and is a British citizen. In the early days she talked about us moving to China some day, but now feels much more at home here. She absolutely loves WeChat and uses it all the time. She uses it to keep in touch with old friends in China and new Chinese friends in the UK. It also keeps her connected to contemporary Chinese culture. So even outside China, WhatsApp&amp;#x27;s reach through the broader Chinese community is almost total.</text></comment>
<story><title>WeChat&apos;s App Revolution</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-19/wechat-s-app-revolution</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nneonneo</author><text>WeChat&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;App Revolution&amp;quot; is by no means a &lt;i&gt;technical&lt;/i&gt; revolution, as several other commenters have pointed out. There&amp;#x27;s nothing new with embedding a web browser, nor with SSO, or integrated payments.&lt;p&gt;The revolution is the fact that this is an app with an install base approaching one billion users (846M monthly active users as of Q3&amp;#x27;16). Anything they do is potentially revolutionary by virtue of sheer scale. They are a platform as influential and powerful as Facebook is in the West. If they decide they want to compete with the platform&amp;#x27;s application store, they will provide strong competition.&lt;p&gt;WeChat has already beaten out most other payment methods in China for day-to-day commerce - credit cards, cash, cheque, etc. It has beaten out most social networks there (after the introduction of the &amp;quot;Moments&amp;quot; feature), and all other instant messaging services including SMS. Taking over other application functions is simply a natural progression for the rather unstoppable juggernaut at this point - and third party app developers will be happy to oblige.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sho_hn</author><text>The situation is very similar in Korea with KakaoTalk. They have several apps within the messenger itself (e.g. even one that lets you book a hairdresser appointment) and currently still several outside (e.g. taxi hailing), but altogether they&amp;#x27;re in a similar position.</text></comment>