The revolution alludes to the fact that one app is taking over everything from social networking, mobile payments, food, ticket sales, ride-hailing, financial products, bill payments, and much more.
I watched the video. I still don't get it. Why would I want one app and company to own all of that? I don't even want one phone manufacturer/platform to own my messaging - I much prefer platform-agnostic Whatsapp over iPhone-only iMessage.
Already the smartphone platform I use can do all of social networking, mobile payments, food, ticket sales, ride-hailing, bill payments, etc on ONE device. I just don't see what there is to be gained by pulling all this down into one app? Switching between apps via APIs is already automatic and rather fast, and will only get better over time. The NYT video makes a lot of mention of "you haven't left the app". Why do I care? As long as I haven't left my phone why do I care what app I'm in?
Having APIs for apps on a device to talk to each other allows for competition and variety - won't it obviously win out?
>Why would I want one app and company to own all of that?
This isn't about whether you, one person, wants this. It's about the nearly a billion people that already live in it. Good for you that you prefer an open app ecosystem, I'm sure there are other people that feel the same way. But in China that approach has pretty much already lost.
>Why would I want one app and company to own all of that?
Because one entity can control they way it's all integrated, they can bring UI consistency and convenience by enforcing some degree of feature de-duplication. E.g. Single sign-on, and a shared e-wallet.
>Having APIs for apps on a device to talk to each other allows for competition and variety - won't it obviously win out?
Nope, there's no guarantee. There are benefits to both approaches. Different people have different priorities, normies don't care this much about freedom.
If this is the future you want, you need to fight for it.
I don't actually care which future will be realized, I just want the better experience. I just don't see how a one-company-does-all can possibly win out over a free market of competition between companies and developers on an open platform.
On the other hand, if WeChat eventually opens up its "app" to other developers and companies, then it will effectively become the operating system and platform. At which point (1) this is "isomorphic" our current system and offers exactly zero advantages (we are just changing where we place the label "operating system") (2) it will be competing with iOS and Android, not with other apps (3) they will have to release a phone that runs the WeChat OS
I don't want that too but look at how many people are giving all their messages and posts to Facebook (pics with Instagram too). It's at least two apps but it could be one single app, and they are experimenting with payment inside Messenger. Bots are small apps that don't require installation. So, Facebook as the WeChat of the west?
tl;dw
The revolution alludes to the fact that one app is taking over everything from social networking, mobile payments, food, ticket sales, ride-hailing, financial products, bill payments, and much more.