The complexities and capabilities in the Chinese(well, most asia) mobile market are remarkable.
I always find it funny when people boast about how great certain things are in the US without ever have traveled to HK, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing etc...
Most people dont realize just how entangled mobile life is in Asia, way more than in the US.
Centralized superapps seem incredibly dangerous to privacy, given that the limited mobile privacy models are designed around per-app permissions.
1. Create app that does 1 thing
2. Add more features to app
3. Abuse superset of permissions
4. Gov leans on app owner
5. Gov abuses superset of permissions
No, I more than 100% agree, I am just staing that most people just dont realize just how deeply entangled the mobile is to Asian life. I wasn't praising it, I am horrified, but also in awe by it.
I'm pretty sure most people are very aware that most of east Asia never saw massive PC adoption and so their internet developed in a very mobile-centric way. This hasn't been surprising for a long time?
I mean, back when the west had WAP there were articles saying NTT DoCoMo had much more advanced phone technology, sure.
But in terms of making it into the cultural consciousness - you don't see ubiquitous asia-specific mobile super-apps in cultural exports like 'Squid Game' or 'Spy X Family' (admittedly a lot of cultural exports aren't set in the present day)
I think if you're in China the centralized superapp is the least of your worries, privacy-wise. I agree that this is probably part of why these things will never really take off in the US though (no matter what Elon wants to wish for).
It is not the least of your worries, it is the abusive system working as intended. It is policy of the Chinese state to ingratiate itself into every aspect of its citizens' lives to exert control.
The fact the State is wholly evil in other ways does not lessen the worry; it multiplies it.
Is that inherently greater than not being connected or using super apps? Also, I didn't know Tokyo or japan in general were also into the "big app" concept. Japan in general didn't seem that "connected" relatively speaking back in 2017-18 but maybe stuff has changed in the past couple of years.
I think I'm missing some context: ex. there's O(many) apps that offer hotspot connections in the US as well. And my understanding is there's a privacy concern, which I think would be exacerbated by a super-app like WeChat adding this.
I always find it funny when people boast about how great certain things are in the US without ever have traveled to HK, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing etc...
Most people dont realize just how entangled mobile life is in Asia, way more than in the US.