WeChat, or Weixin in Mandarin, is quickly becoming one of the most popular multi-purpose platforms, not just in China, but the world. But most importantly, one of them was becoming the world’s first ‘Super-App’. They were starting to shed the moniker of ‘copycat app’. The once derided Chinese apps were being seen as a glimpse of the future. The path that these apps took, however, started to turn heads amongst the Silicon Valley hierarchy. Huge swathes of the internet as we know it have been blocked by ‘The Great Firewall’, but an ever-growing number of imitation websites have emerged that enable the Chinese Government to control citizens’ access to the internet.Īs these copycat apps began to emerge, app developers from Sydney to Stockholm dismissed them as imitations, or state-run ‘puppet apps’ that let the Chinese government keep tabs on its citizens. The solution? Create ‘copycat apps’ that are incredibly similar to their western counterparts but approved and monitored by the Chinese government.
Platforms developed in the western world just wouldn’t work in China, as the government would be largely unable to monitor everything. The other problem is that in the western world we have laws and regulations around privacy and data protection that simply don’t exist in communist-led China. And however much the Chinese government attempted to shield its citizens from the western world, there was no hiding the emergence and increasing importance of platforms such as WhatsApp, PayPal and Uber, amongst many others. However much you don’t need a new car or lawnmower, you want one. It’s similar to when your neighbour gets a new car, or a new lawnmower. The problem with trying to maintain what is, effectively, a shield around your country is that when websites and apps such as these become as big as they are, they traverse geographical borders, language barriers and cultural differences. WeChat is creating a new way of life in China. Instead, China is taking a technological path that looks very similar, but is built very differently. ‘The Great Firewall’ has allowed the country to forge its own path in terms of technology, a path that appears to be absent of the platforms we’ve come to take for granted, such as Google, Twitter and eBay. Questions about the legitimacy of the ruling party, rumoured corruption amongst high ranking bureaucrats and unrest surrounding the reforms introduced by the communist party led to a social uprising, immortalized by the image of an unknown protestor standing defiantly in front of a column of tanks.īorne out of these troubling times, however, grew a burgeoning economy, strong infrastructure and investment in technological and scientific research that has, behind closed doors, established China as a global superpower. The economic and social changes that arose after the Mao era led to a huge proportion of the country’s younger generation becoming disenfranchised with the political elite, and worried about what the future may hold for them. The China of today is a far cry from the unsettled and politically unstable country of the 1980’s. Behind ‘The Great Firewall’ of China lies a parallel universe of industrial and scientific advancements that allows us to glimpse into an alternate vision of technology as we know it, as it could be and what it may yet become. But it’s not a reality where citizens are deprived of basic social communication, as you might imagine. In China, however, a country once known for its cheap knock-offs and imitation products, this is reality. In a world where many of us rely on platforms like Facebook, Google and YouTube on a daily basis, it can be hard for us to imagine life without them.
In fact, chances are you can’t even name one. If you’re reading this in the UK, Europe, America, or in fact, almost anywhere in the world, chances are you’ve never used a Chinese app.
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