On the Chinese social media horizon the US ban of WeChat is a game changer. WeChat is an all encompassing social media app that people in China can’t live without. Imagine your bank accounts, Amazon, Google, Uber, Facebook, Instagram, all in one app. (for a 2 min video explanation, click here. )
WeChat is an ambitious app to push hundreds of millions of Chinese from coins and bills into the currency free 21st century. WeChat has made it possible for millions of on-line purchases per day, while at the same time decimating the livelihood of pickpockets and purse snatchers. This one simple app so called “a kind of Swiss Army knife of an app” (according to Xinmei Sheng of Abacus) has done more in 10 years to clean up visible crime and start e-businesses than any Small Business Administration initiative.
Since 2012, it has been open to the rest of the world. WeChat has linked the social aspects and engaged Chinese nationals in learning directly about the world outside of China. WeChat US/International is different from WeChat China because it is strictly a social platform and not tied to e-cash functions, although GPS tracking of WeChat’s People Nearby function is more robust and remains alert even when WeChat is off. It isn’t as clearly on and off as LinkedIn’s Find Nearby.
Personally, I have enjoyed using WeChat to talk to my cousins from Canada, China, US, and Taiwan in one chat group while staying connected with them as they travel cross borders, say, for work as far as Madagascar or, for a honeymoon to other Pacific islands. Besides, the translation function and the variety of Chinese resources work seamlessly on WeChat. Via Google and other texting apps, the same activities take multi-steps, limit the photo sharing, and disrupt other functions.
During this pandemic, the gains for social contact have been enormous as my extended family and friends (overseas Chinese and Chinese nationals alike) console and support each other starting in January and through the US lockdown. We were able to see the bigger picture. We, worldwide, are in this together. Yet, at the same time, I wouldn’t underestimate that WeChat can access more of our information than we agreed to.
The culture point is this: the premise of this app design is not culturally compatible with principles of privacy in practice in the US. Though Facebook has been accused of similar invasions, the privacy line not only moves in WeChat, it nearly exists at all.
Image downloaded from Dignited.com
