The Evolution of WeChat

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WeChat is almost like an operating system in an app, right? Like every possible use case. And it's just a fascinating phenomenon and how markets evolve like this. The web is effectively dead in China. It's dead not because of the Great Firewall, not because that sort of thing. It'sdead because the web doesn't make sense on a mobile device. You can do all sorts of things all through your phone. But you use WeChat. And no one goes out and builds a web page.

Ben and James discuss how leverage shifts in a value chain, why WeChat is so powerful in China, and why that is a problem for Apple.

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Links

Ben Thompson: Apple’s China Problem — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Messaging: Mobile’s Killer App — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Slack and the State of Technology at the End of 2015 — Stratechery
Connie Chan: When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China — a16z
Ben Thompson: Peak Google — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Beyond Disruption — Stratechery
James Allworth: The Blessing of Failure — Medium
Ben Thompson: The State of Consumer Technology at the End of 2014 — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Why Doesn’t Apple Enable Sustainable Businesses on the App Store? — Stratechery