Some of China’s best tech companies are now outmaneuvering their Silicon Valley counterparts.
Chinese tech companies are often derided for repurposing the West's best internet ideas for the local market. But lately tech companies in China, which ranks as the world's largest smarpthone market and home to the largest number of internet users in the world, is outmaneuvering their Silicon Valley counterparts, especially with regards to mobile. Here are 11 Chinese internet companies that are better than their U.S. counterparts drawn from Beta China, the new ebook by Hamish McKenzie that details this emerging innovation generation.
Weixin: A mobile social network
It took Facebook eight years to reach one billion users. In China, a mobile messaging app called Weixin (the English-language version of which is called WeChat) has accumulated more than 400 million users in just over two years.
Weixin started out as a mere rip-off of a Hong Kong-made app called TalkBox, but has since added features that mimic what’s available in Facebook (a timeline), GroupMe (group chat), Instagram (photo-sharing with filters), and Skype (video calls). However, what’s most interesting about Weixin, which is owned by China’s biggest Internet company, Tencent, is its business model. While Facebook scrambles to figure out what a social network looks like in the mobile era — and how to make money off it — Tencent has integrated payments and coupons into Weixin, and it will likely soon start distributing games through the app.
Via: jingdaily.com
Changba: Karaoke with a mobile economy
While a killer karaoke app still eludes us in the West, tiny startup Changba has created a giant mobile social network of music lovers who sing into their phones, add photo slideshows to their tracks, and then share their creations among their peers and followers. The company took just 40 days to hit 10 million users. The app has its own charts and makes money through its virtual currency, with which users reward each other for their efforts.
Via: changba.com
Shakey Shakey Food God: Food recommendations app that learns your taste
Yelp looks primitive compared to China’s break-out food recommendations mobile app, the delightfully named Shakey Shakey Food God. With every shake of the phone, Shakey Shakey delivers a restaurant recommendation that draws on the user’s tastes, location, and the time of day. The app monitors users’ past activity — such as how long they linger on particular listings — to learn which restaurants are best suited to their tastes. By taking note of such factors, the app is able to get a pretty good idea of whether or not a user is at home, work, or on holiday.
Via: lehe.com
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