1. prplhze2000's Avatar
    Forget BBM and Whatsapp. The Wall Street Journal published an article last week that claimed China's smartphone culture was way ahead of America's. It was interesting to read the section about Wechat and how much a part of life and culture in China that app is:

    Messaging apps as operating systems

    In China, a messaging app is much more than a way to text someone that you�re running late for a meeting. It�s a social network for keeping up with friends and celebrities.

    But it isn�t just social. It taps into your phone�s GPS, microphone and camera to let you play games, check in to a flight, identify a song, book an appointment, call a cab, pay bills, you name it.

    Messaging services like WeChat do so much, they�re kind of like operating systems for your life, as venture-capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz�s Connie Chan recently noted. WeChat hosts millions (yes, millions) of other apps inside its platform, so you can really live your whole life inside WeChat.

    It�s convenient to have so much in one app, and the identity verification that WeChat provides makes it easier to use payment services.

    The best part? Our colleague Li Yuan says everyone who matters in her life is on the same messaging platform. Since WeChat is fully functional across many phones, you don�t get sucked into the ecosystem of a particular one, like with Apple�s iMessage or Google�s Hangouts. You�d think Facebook would be able to accomplish the same in the U.S.


    Then there was this gem about paying for goods and services:

    Phones really are wallets

    In China, the tech elite are much more likely to pay for goods and services with their phones because it�s widely accepted, and doesn�t rely on merchants updating clunky old terminals with special technology like Apple Pay.

    Apps like WeChat allow you to pay from a mobile wallet (linked to a bank or credit card) without waving your phone over anything. Just pull up the account of the merchant you want to pay, millions of whom live inside WeChat with their own accounts. The equivalent to this in the U.S. would be paying for dinner with Facebook Messenger (a service it�s entirely possible Facebook is working on).

    And WeChat has giant competition. Alipay, which started as a PayPal -like system to ensure transactions on giant online marketplace Alibaba, has grown into a flexible replacement for cash in all kinds of settings�paying landlords, bills, friends and so forth. You can earn better interest with it than at a bank or get a loan, stimulating parts of the economy underserved by banks.
    08-26-15 08:25 AM
  2. Troy Tiscareno's Avatar
    China's advantage is that they had virtually no infrastructure for things like credit cards (or much of anything else) 20 years ago, and most of the build-out has been in the last 10-15 years - in particular the last 10. That means they don't have billions of people with mag-stripe cards to support, millions of contracts with merchants, etc. all based on old technology. They could start their built-out with the latest systems and technologies. This means that they're FAR more likely to adopt newer technology than, say, the US, who have tons of older infrastructure in place and tons of contracts and agreements in place to support it. The cost for us to change over is far larger than their costs to build from scratch.

    This was great for WeChat, because they could be at the right place at the right time to dominate - much like Google was with web search, or Apple with the iPhone, or Amazon with online retailing. It also shows the power of the Network Effect (which says that things become more valuable and desirable at the SQUARE of the number of users, so as you add users, your value and desirability increases dramatically). The fact that everyone they know and buy from uses WeChat means that they are FAR less likely to even bother trying anything else, because nothing else will have the Network Effect that WeChat currently has there.

    Network Effect is why first-place WhatsApp was worth $19B, while fourth-place Viber was only worth $400M - WhatsApp had double the users, but massively more value, because all of those users will draw in more users and eventually other services. It's also why BBM has such little value - the userbase is too small to be worth much today, despite some growth. Jim had the right idea by trying to make BBM an industry standard - too bad Mike and the Board were too myopic to see his vision.
    08-26-15 02:13 PM
  3. Prem WatsApp's Avatar
    China's advantage is that they had virtually no infrastructure for things like credit cards (or much of anything else) 20 years ago, and most of the build-out has been in the last 10-15 years - in particular the last 10. That means they don't have billions of people with mag-stripe cards to support, millions of contracts with merchants, etc. all based on old technology. They could start their built-out with the latest systems and technologies. This means that they're FAR more likely to adopt newer technology than, say, the US, who have tons of older infrastructure in place and tons of contracts and agreements in place to support it. The cost for us to change over is far larger than their costs to build from scratch....
    Looks like they simply overlooked credit card terminals and used what they had an knew, smartphone apps... makes sense!

    :-)

    �   Andro-Loader (TM) - who is gonna leak ...? Black-Berry! dadadada dee dum dee dum...   �
    08-26-15 02:56 PM
  4. prplhze2000's Avatar
    Damn good points. Of course, over here we would try to make Wechat a public utility of it achieved that kind of dominance.

    Posted via CB10
    08-26-15 04:24 PM
  5. brookie229's Avatar
    I just returned from China after being there for a month and was astonished at the usage of Wechat. I know that my wife uses it here (Canada) all the time to keep in contact with her university colleagues and friends and family in China but I had no idea of the functionality of Wechat (and my wife didn't know either!) until we actually saw it being used over there. I inquired about using BBM and quickly realized that the network built up by her Wechat contacts was unbeatable. Barring a large-scale disaster by this company, I can only envision more and more services being used with this app. Meanwhile we have Paypal (well, soon anyway!).
    08-26-15 05:25 PM
  6. Sulaco757's Avatar
    Glad to see Wechat is in BlackBerry World and Native! Wonder if BBM will ever regain some glory. The idea that a messaging app could be a platform for so many more internal apps... What if that solved some of BB10s app gap problems?

    This WSJ article shows the challenges BBM faces.-img_20150826_235825.png

     Q10 on 10.3.2.858 
    08-26-15 11:01 PM
  7. prplhze2000's Avatar
    I think this is way ahead of BBM but I'm a layman. It's what Chen faces if he wants to develop business in China.

    Posted via CB10
    08-26-15 11:03 PM
  8. brookie229's Avatar
    Glad to see Wechat is in BlackBerry World and Native! Wonder if BBM will ever regain some glory. The idea that a messaging app could be a platform for so many more internal apps... What if that solved some of BB10s app gap problems?



    Click image for larger version. 

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     Q10 on 10.3.2.858 
    Unfortunately the BBW WeChat app is outdated and missing most of the features that we are talking about here. It does work, albeit in a limited fashion. My wife uses the android version, which does work well on her Passport.
    08-26-15 11:27 PM
  9. hoopitz's Avatar
    I think this is an opportunity. BBM has already integrated Paypal and there is nothing stopping them from adding additional 3rd party apps. The more they can pack into BBM, I think the better. BBM could have its own marketplace where you choose which apps you want in there.

    Posted via CB10
    RigoMonster likes this.
    08-26-15 11:32 PM
  10. crackberry_geek's Avatar
    I think this is way ahead of BBM but I'm a layman. It's what Chen faces if he wants to develop business in China.

    Posted via CB10
    Amazingly ironic how far Chen is in over his head on this... he's so clueless when he should have had the skills and cultural awareness to understand this before anyone else...

    Posted via CB10
    techvisor likes this.
    08-27-15 01:35 AM
  11. prplhze2000's Avatar
    He probably know. It's more a case of the hand he was dealt.

    Posted via CB10
    08-27-15 03:29 AM
  12. gnirkatto's Avatar
    I wonder why nobody here seems to be concerned about security issues with Wechat - I mean, a company that apparently intrudes into an entire lifestyle, sounds equally bad or worse than even FB...!?
    I rather give up on a few features and stick to BBM. Would like them to attract much more users of course!
    baarn likes this.
    08-27-15 04:04 AM
  13. baarn's Avatar
    I wonder why nobody here seems to be concerned about security issues with Wechat - I mean, a company that apparently intrudes into an entire lifestyle, sounds equally bad or worse than even FB...!?
    I rather give up on a few features and stick to BBM. Would like them to attract much more users of course!
    Agreed. Too many eggs in the one basket for my taste.
    08-27-15 05:06 AM
  14. world traveler and former ceo's Avatar
    I wonder why nobody here seems to be concerned about security issues with Wechat - I mean, a company that apparently intrudes into an entire lifestyle, sounds equally bad or worse than even FB...!?
    I rather give up on a few features and stick to BBM. Would like them to attract much more users of course!
    Agreed. I'll stick with communication that is tops in security and privacy.... for my business this trumps everything else.


    Posted via CB10
    08-27-15 06:43 AM
  15. prplhze2000's Avatar
    Agreed but the consumers don't care about that apparently. It's going to take some major hacks where consumers get burned before they care.

    And if they don't care, BBM has a tougher time competing when it's security versus convenience.

    Posted via CB10
    08-27-15 07:25 AM
  16. Loc22's Avatar
    Forget BBM and Whatsapp. The Wall Street Journal published an article last week that claimed China's smartphone culture was way ahead of America's. It was interesting to read the section about Wechat and how much a part of life and culture in China that app is:

    Messaging apps as operating systems

    In China, a messaging app is much more than a way to text someone that you�re running late for a meeting. It�s a social network for keeping up with friends and celebrities.

    But it isn�t just social. It taps into your phone�s GPS, microphone and camera to let you play games, check in to a flight, identify a song, book an appointment, call a cab, pay bills, you name it.

    Messaging services like WeChat do so much, they�re kind of like operating systems for your life, as venture-capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz�s Connie Chan recently noted. WeChat hosts millions (yes, millions) of other apps inside its platform, so you can really live your whole life inside WeChat.

    It�s convenient to have so much in one app, and the identity verification that WeChat provides makes it easier to use payment services.

    The best part? Our colleague Li Yuan says everyone who matters in her life is on the same messaging platform. Since WeChat is fully functional across many phones, you don�t get sucked into the ecosystem of a particular one, like with Apple�s iMessage or Google�s Hangouts. You�d think Facebook would be able to accomplish the same in the U.S.


    Then there was this gem about paying for goods and services:

    Phones really are wallets

    In China, the tech elite are much more likely to pay for goods and services with their phones because it�s widely accepted, and doesn�t rely on merchants updating clunky old terminals with special technology like Apple Pay.

    Apps like WeChat allow you to pay from a mobile wallet (linked to a bank or credit card) without waving your phone over anything. Just pull up the account of the merchant you want to pay, millions of whom live inside WeChat with their own accounts. The equivalent to this in the U.S. would be paying for dinner with Facebook Messenger (a service it�s entirely possible Facebook is working on).

    And WeChat has giant competition. Alipay, which started as a PayPal -like system to ensure transactions on giant online marketplace Alibaba, has grown into a flexible replacement for cash in all kinds of settings�paying landlords, bills, friends and so forth. You can earn better interest with it than at a bank or get a loan, stimulating parts of the economy underserved by banks.
    Only if BBM know how to market their product then it would be great same as WeChat. @BBM has all these but the services are fragmented & is not available widely.

    Another waste from #BlackBerry

    Posted via CB10
    08-27-15 08:33 AM
  17. Bishkin's Avatar
    Agreed but the consumers don't care about that apparently. It's going to take some major hacks where consumers get burned before they care.

    And if they don't care, BBM has a tougher time competing when it's security versus convenience.
    Sure there will be hacks but fortunately or unfortunately not all phones will die from it, maybe some unlucky ones. Do you think BB10 users will ditch their phones if it got hacked?

    Apps and connectivity are much more important than security. Problem is Blackberry don't know that and that the world has moved on. I ignore BBM because Whatsapp rules my Z10, while my iPhone has Wechat.
    08-27-15 09:40 AM
  18. Soulstream's Avatar
    Sure there will be hacks but fortunately or unfortunately not all phones will die from it, maybe some unlucky ones. Do you think BB10 users will ditch their phones if it got hacked?

    Apps and connectivity are much more important than security. Problem is Blackberry don't know that and that the world has moved on. I ignore BBM because Whatsapp rules my Z10, while my iPhone has Wechat.
    The thing is, if one app gets hacked (usually server-side) it doesn't mean that another is less secure; it just means that that particular service was insecure. Web servers get hacked all the time due to improper security protocols. That doesn't mean people will stop using the internet altogether, just that certain website.
    08-27-15 10:14 AM
  19. Originalloverman's Avatar
    I wonder why nobody here seems to be concerned about security issues with Wechat - I mean, a company that apparently intrudes into an entire lifestyle, sounds equally bad or worse than even FB...!?
    I rather give up on a few features and stick to BBM. Would like them to attract much more users of course!
    Agreed.

    Send from the amazing powers of the  Z30
    08-27-15 04:27 PM

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