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Wait I'm confused I was told that it was China that's stealing US tech? ๐Ÿค” (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.ml
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https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/21/why-us-companies-struggle-to-replicate-chinas-wechat-super-app-.html

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[โ€“] 20 points 2 years ago (85 children)

@yogthos "Super App" never made sense to me either. It's just an operating system and a dozen apps in a trenchcoat.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 2 points 2 years ago (84 children)

    It's about integration, the amount of actions it takes to do something in a single app is vastly reduced compared to having to juggle multiple apps. For example, you want to go out for food with your friends. With WeChat, you can message your friends, find a restaurant on the map, book it, etc. all completely seamlessly. This is a really good video explaining the benefits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSMFnJnY7EA

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 2 years ago (33 children)

    @yogthos I'll give it a watch. Regardless, a good operating system should be capable of such seamless integration. That's why "Super apps" are an operating system in a trenchcoat.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 0 points 2 years ago (32 children)

    An operating system doesn't solve the problem because it's fundamentally a UX problem. You can look at a super app as an OS that also handles the UI layer and apps are just APIs below that layer. This is not how the OS works on Android or iOS however where each app couples its API with its own UI.

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 2 years ago* (31 children)

    @yogthos You misunderstand. If you make a "Super App", you ARE making an operating system. Yes most OS's have UX problems that prevent this level of integration, but the critical difference is that you're giving complete control to a single entity.

    The client-server pattern perpetuates power imbalances, and "Super apps" make that problem much much worse.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Same thing you can do in the Google app ecosystem, but in that case we say 'hey maybe I don't want this company to know everything about me, my plans, and what I like'.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Except you can't. The scenario I outlined requires juggling a bunch of apps and it's way more effort in practice. Try doing that sometime and you'll see how clunky it feels.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I can literally go on the calendar, add a location which will interface with the maps app, which can give me reviews, menus, directions, etc. Add people from my contacts, who use any type of email and cal they like (not limited to WhatsApp users) and have an email sent off with an ICS file to add to their calendar of choice. Provide a drive attachment in the same calendar invite if there was something to discuss with this meetup...

    Feeding all my info to a Chinese app isn't going to somehow improve that. My larger interest is in breaking up the aggregation of data by a single entity.

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