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by ducharmdev 1085 days ago
The beginnings of a western WeChat?
5 comments

I hate how right you are. I do my best to stay out of the Facebook ecosystem (although I am sure they have an extensive profile of my web activities). I am surprised they have not tried to make their own non-crypto financial system. Could embed it into restaurant storefronts and the marketplace.
Meta does not have the support of legislators. The EU would regulate any service that would even aspire to become a Western WeChat way before they have any chance to succeed.
Doesnt EU already have somewhat of a WeChat, everybody uses whatsapp there. Definitely Meta already won that market.
The problem with wechat is not use, its how its embedded everywhere.

Being able to do payments without a bank through whatsapp is way beyond the risk appetitte of european regulators for example.

Plus forcing whatsapp to add e2e encryption already fixes most of the issues in terms of risk to privacy regardless of how big the userbase it.

WeChat is so much more than just a messaging app. This is a common misconception when comparing WeChat and Whatsapp. The functionality of those two is not even remotely comparable.
>> everybody uses whatsapp there

That claim does not ring true to me. Maybe a few years ago, but now? I don't use whatsapp and I don't know anyone who uses it, except for a group of expats from South America who probably use it because it's still widespread in South America and their friends use it, maybe?

Ironic because apparently that is the long-time strategy of Elon with Twitter (X app). Off course these plans seem pretty delusional now...
Ouch... yeah that sounds about right.
Didn't ever really realize this until you said it...

WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, messenger, and Facebook all in one app. Horrifying.