[usaar333]

That's not entirely true. WeChat in many ways is more impressive than whatever US equivalent is for a Chinese audience. And Didi executed far better than Uber without protectionism being in play. It's nontrivial to execute in a foreign culture to your own.

[DiogenesKynikos]

Indeed, Chinese apps have diverged significantly from what's used in the West. There were a bunch of Chinese copycat apps at first, but some of them have been supplanted by new and very different apps. Everyone in China used to be on a Facebook copycat called "Ren Ren," but it's gone the way of MySpace, and everyone is now on WeChat, which has no equivalent in the West.

[c256]

> WeChat, which has no equivalent in the West Facebook has been very transparent recently about their intent to ‘fix’ this.

[joejerryronnie]

Didi may have executed better than Uber, but there was pretty significant informal protectionism going on, as well.