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edk99

macrumors 6502a
May 27, 2009
859
1,409
FL
Government can choose based on national interest.

Platforms like Twitter and YouTube receive covert directives from the US intelligence community and the State department to steer the public opinion and to manufacture consent for the benefit of the US state and US national interests, often to the detriment of foreign states, even ally states.

Things like this has been used widely in the US to manufacture public consent for war. Think Iraq, think Iran. They are doing it now to prepare the public for a potential war with China.

In Psychology, this is called, Systematic Desensitization. Before you know it, they will imprint that idea into you, and you will feel that it was your idea all along.
What the hell does any of that have to do with the government recommending/demanding apps to install? Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are not preinstalled on iPhones. I choose to install those apps if I wish regardless of what the government suggests or forces me to install. This is still terrible idea and will only get worse now that the door is open.
 
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0924487

Cancelled
Aug 17, 2016
2,699
2,808
What the hell does any of that have to do with the government recommending/demanding apps to install? Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are not preinstalled on iPhones. I choose to install those apps if I wish regardless of what the government suggests or forces me to install. This is still terrible idea and will only get worse now that the door is open.
Well, because the US, up to now, is dominant in those services. So, there is no need.

Imaging if people in the US overwhelmingly use Chinese or Russian services and platforms for everything. Do you think the US government won't do similar things to drive people to use local but less competitive apps? Sure they will, think TikTok, think WeChat.

Government recommending apps is still better than certain government official banning apps for no apparent legitimate reason.
 

Aoligei

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2020
910
1,027
By powerful, do you mean the sheer # of citizens that use such e-commerce apps or that their government has heavily funded such business to have a rapid and influx - without gov restriction within its borders - to implement new infrastructure such as banking money sharing to purchasing or transferring funds especially to those that don’t have banks? (aka WeChat)

Either way, it doesn’t matter.

First, I don’t see problem of government funding such business. Western government do that, Chinese government does that as well.

Secondly: If you think all these Chinese app were government’s work, then aren’t you basically saying Chinese government are such good software developers?

Third: Regardless what, you can’t deny the fact that most Chinese apps are functioning better than western counterparts.

Forth: When I setup my iPhone, I will install bunch of apps without second thought. These include: Bilibili, Wechat, QQ, iQiyi, Jingdong, Alipay, Taobao etc... you get the idea.
 

DeepIn2U

macrumors G5
May 30, 2002
12,898
6,908
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Either way, it doesn’t matter.

First, I don’t see problem of government funding such business. Western government do that, Chinese government does that as well.

Secondly: If you think all these Chinese app were government’s work, then aren’t you basically saying Chinese government are such good software developers?

Third: Regardless what, you can’t deny the fact that most Chinese apps are functioning better than western counterparts.

Forth: When I setup my iPhone, I will install bunch of apps without second thought. These include: Bilibili, Wechat, QQ, iQiyi, Jingdong, Alipay, Taobao etc... you get the idea.

Third: I cannot deny/agree since I’ve never used those Chinese apps. I have idea bugs or stability etc. WeChat alone has a breadth of community services compared to what we experience here in N America.

the dynamics of infrstructure and its users having or more importantly NOT having access led to the need and success:

many living in countryside are farmers and don’t have bank accounts. No longer needed due to WeChat. many shop in fresh markets - again WeChat due to no infrastructure for payment systems like we have here. Pic cards or whatever it’s called is used. Heck even the homeless have it to receive money from those sympathetic to their needs.

USA and Canadian governments have never funded entire industries like what China has the last 10yrs alone 100’s of billions to trillions every year.

no longer a textile country. More importantly entire vast technical cities are built in less than a decade is phenomenal.

I kinda feel you think I’m knocking the culture or government. That’s not what I’m thinking nor doing. I applaud them actually. Just stating the environments for needs that lead to progress are very different.
 

Aoligei

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2020
910
1,027
I don't see this being any good. Who picks the apps? The government? How does an app get considered? Donations to a political fund? I see this being riddled with corruption and favoritism. I don't need my government recommending to me what apps to install. I can pick my own apps. Glad they can skip past installing any of those "recommendations".

It doesn’t matter how apps are selected.

It is like government is doing public project, like build highway. Do you always know how government select who build, who supplied materials.. etc.

It is good thing that government promoting local apps and you should support local
 
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subi257

macrumors 65816
Sep 13, 2018
1,324
1,640
New Jersey
And ? If Apple needs to do this in order to still be eligible to sell in those markets, why not?

or are you suggesting Apple cease business in China/Russia?
Exactly, Every country has it's rules/agenda, etc. If you want to do business there you need to follow or get and exception.
 

unclemax

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2015
289
247
There is no need. In China people use Chinese apps anyway. Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance create apps that are so much more powerful than anything the West has to offer.
>In China people use Chinese apps anyway.
Because all the foreign competitors are banned.

>apps that are so much more powerful than anything the West has to offer.
According to who? The Chinese people that aren’t allowed to get any taste of the competition? For example, WeChat is absolutely ghastly in addition to being a battery killer. But even without getting into arguments about preferences, your statement is demonstrably false. There is no Chinese search engine that can compete with Google in any language other than Chinese, eg Baidu is absolutely abysmal when it comes to English.
 

unclemax

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2015
289
247
Either way, it doesn’t matter.

First, I don’t see problem of government funding such business. Western government do that, Chinese government does that as well.

Secondly: If you think all these Chinese app were government’s work, then aren’t you basically saying Chinese government are such good software developers?

Third: Regardless what, you can’t deny the fact that most Chinese apps are functioning better than western counterparts.

Forth: When I setup my iPhone, I will install bunch of apps without second thought. These include: Bilibili, Wechat, QQ, iQiyi, Jingdong, Alipay, Taobao etc... you get the idea.
I certainly can’t deny WeChat is the greatest battery hog I have ever seen, I mean, hats off, it’s like having an emulator running a parallel OS on top of iOS and it’s freaking showing. If I didn’t permanently turn off notifications and backgrpound app refresh it‘d easily account for 30% of battery usage. Otherwise I have no idea what you’re talking about when saying they function better. What’s wrong with eg Twitter, YouTube, Netflix apps? Nothing. May I guess you’re just more used to the Asian design language, with the user interface being overloaded with features and notifications, like Taobao? I find it ugly, cluttered, and addictive, and rather prefer using the Taobao website. Similarly I prefer clean and less intrusive interfaces of the western apps.
 

edk99

macrumors 6502a
May 27, 2009
859
1,409
FL
It doesn’t matter how apps are selected.

It is like government is doing public project, like build highway. Do you always know how government select who build, who supplied materials.. etc.

It is good thing that government promoting local apps and you should support local
It does matter. This is not a public project. This is government telling a private business what products they need to offer. No thanks! I can choose to support who I want to support local or not.
 

Aoligei

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2020
910
1,027
>In China people use Chinese apps anyway.
Because all the foreign competitors are banned.

Chinese people use Chinese app because it is made in local and it tailored towards local users. It offers functionalities that competitors aren’t offering.

I can use WeChat to pay for my food, calling taxi, book train/flight ticket, I can pay for my utility bill etc.

Tell me a competitor app offers such

>apps that are so much more powerful than anything the West has to offer.
According to who? The Chinese people that aren’t allowed to get any taste of the competition? For example, WeChat is absolutely ghastly in addition to being a battery killer. But even without getting into arguments about preferences, your statement is demonstrably false. There is no Chinese search engine that can compete with Google in any language other than Chinese, eg Baidu is absolutely abysmal when it comes to English.
It is fact.

You made it sound like competitor app are so great, Facebook App is also a battery killer and it force you to download multiple app for different functionality. Like why isn’t Facebook chat incorporated into the main app?

Talking about Google. Google was operating their own search engine before early 2000s. They willing existed out China.

Baidu is mainly operate inside China. Why would it spend money to optimize English search or any other language.

You also surprised to know, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc are available to download from Chinese App Store.
 

Aoligei

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2020
910
1,027
It does matter. This is not a public project. This is government telling a private business what products they need to offer. No thanks! I can choose to support who I want to support local or not.

Government is has ability and authority to tell burdened what can and what cannot offer based on national securities, national interest groundZ

You make it sound like private business is free from government interventions. This is no different from government set law to mandate carbon footprint or government pass law to regulate emission.
 
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unclemax

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2015
289
247
Chinese people use Chinese app because it is made in local and it tailored towards local users.
That’s not a counterargument to what I said. Most people use WeChat for messaging, and foreign messaging apps are banned, so we simply don’t know what people would use if given choice. I can bet Telegram would take off in China if it was allowed to, but alas, there’s no way of knowing because it’s banned.

I can use WeChat to pay for my food, calling taxi, book train/flight ticket, I can pay for my utility bill etc.

Tell me a competitor app offers such
I have seen zero people use WeChat to book train or plane tickets, most use 12306 app or qunar, then other services you mentioned are tied to respective WeChat or Alipay wallets, it’s a separate thing simply bundled with messaging for no good reason. As I mentioned above, mostly WeChat is used for messaging, where it has plenty of competition. I mean would have if the likes of Facebook and Telegram weren’t banned.

It is fact.
Again, according to who? If a billion people that never had a computer, and are mobile-first, and are used to ghastly design language so they don’t know any better think something is good, it doesn’t make it so. Yes, there are good Chinese apps, but many look ugly and not well thought through. E.g. I mentioned Taobao app. If I had a choice, I’d never use it.

Baidu is mainly operate inside China. Why would it spend money to optimize English search or any other language.

You also surprised to know, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc are available to download from Chinese App Store.
I made a very simple demonstration that not all Chinese apps are superior, such as there is no good Chinese search engine for English. Looks like you are agreeing with me.

Finally, I don’t care if the app is available to download. What matters is that they’re all banned and are unusable.
 

Aoligei

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2020
910
1,027
I certainly can’t deny WeChat is the greatest battery hog I have ever seen, I mean, hats off, it’s like having an emulator running a parallel OS on top of iOS and it’s freaking showing. If I didn’t permanently turn off notifications and backgrpound app refresh it‘d easily account for 30% of battery usage. Otherwise I have no idea what you’re talking about when saying they function better. What’s wrong with eg Twitter, YouTube, Netflix apps? Nothing. May I guess you’re just more used to the Asian design language, with the user interface being overloaded with features and notifications, like Taobao? I find it ugly, cluttered, and addictive, and rather prefer using the Taobao website. Similarly I prefer clean and less intrusive interfaces of the western apps.

If WeChat do everything, then I will just use WeChat. One app rules multiple apps.

If I can do chat, transactions, video watching, emailing etc with all app, then why not? I don’t need download YouTube, Twitter, Netflix...

I never find WeChat is battery hog, it is certainly not as bad as Facebook app. This is real battery killer.
 

subi257

macrumors 65816
Sep 13, 2018
1,324
1,640
New Jersey
Either way, it doesn’t matter.

First, I don’t see problem of government funding such business. Western government do that, Chinese government does that as well.

Secondly: If you think all these Chinese app were government’s work, then aren’t you basically saying Chinese government are such good software developers?

Third: Regardless what, you can’t deny the fact that most Chinese apps are functioning better than western counterparts.

Forth: When I setup my iPhone, I will install bunch of apps without second thought. These include: Bilibili, Wechat, QQ, iQiyi, Jingdong, Alipay, Taobao etc... you get the idea.
I think that there is a lot of truth to that. I think that China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, etc are way ahead of us here in USA on that technology. I could be and I'm sure there is at least some government funding, but it's a better user experience for the end user. working in a global financial corporation, I have friends and coworkers from all of those countries and those are the things that they say. Their internet/WiFi is faster, more consistent through out the country. We here, certainly have the knowledge and technology but are hampered by the bureaucracy and free market...meaning so many different versions and standards, so there is no one great one.
 
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Aoligei

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2020
910
1,027
That’s not a counterargument to what I said. Most people use WeChat for messaging, and foreign messaging apps are banned, so we simply don’t know what people would use if given choice. I can bet Telegram would take off in China if it was allowed to, but alas, there’s no way of knowing because it’s banned.


I have seen zero people use WeChat to book train or plane tickets, most use 12306 app or qunar, then other services you mentioned are tied to respective WeChat or Alipay wallets, it’s a separate thing simply bundled with messaging for no good reason. As I mentioned above, mostly WeChat is used for messaging, where it has plenty of competition. I mean would have if the likes of Facebook and Telegram weren’t banned.


Again, according to who? If a billion people that never had a computer, and are mobile-first, and are used to ghastly design language so they don’t know any better think something is good, it doesn’t make it so. Yes, there are good Chinese apps, but many look ugly and not well thought through. E.g. I mentioned Taobao app. If I had a choice, I’d never use it.


I made a very simple demonstration that not all Chinese apps are superior, such as there is no good Chinese search engine for English. Looks like you are agreeing with me.

Finally, I don’t care if the app is available to download. What matters is that they’re all banned and are unusable.

Why? You have issue with government banning competitor? I have no issue with them. If United States goes out can WeChat, TikTok, Huawei as national security concern, any western messaging app that could use to surveillance Chinese citizen, should be banned.

It is not like Chinese citizen aren’t have the ability to access VPN, they are pretty much informed about western made apps.

It is just Chinese people prefer local made app. Simple is that.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have booked flight ticket via WeChat and I also booked pick up service from WeChat at airport. Simple.
 

unclemax

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2015
289
247
If WeChat do everything, then I will just use WeChat. One app rules multiple apps.

If I can do chat, transactions, video watching, emailing etc with all app, then why not? I don’t need download YouTube, Twitter, Netflix...

I never find WeChat is battery hog, it is certainly not as bad as Facebook app. This is real battery killer.
So how does the fact that Netflix doesn’t support transactions make it a bad streaming app? Sorry, you’re not making sense. You know, you are free to like any app you want, just don’t make sweeping statements based on your personal preferences.

About WeChat - maybe you don’t use it for much, otherwise I cannot explain how you failed to notice the battery drain. I‘ve seen it consistently over two phones, I am even forced to disable all notifications and rely on WeChat on my laptop because I don’t want to have my phone battery replaced sooner than necessary.
 

unclemax

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2015
289
247
Why? You have issue with government banning competitor? I have no issue with them. If United States goes out can WeChat, TikTok, Huawei as national security concern, any western messaging app that could use to surveillance Chinese citizen, should be banned.

It is not like Chinese citizen aren’t have the ability to access VPN, they are pretty much informed about western made apps.

It is just Chinese people prefer local made app. Simple is that.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have booked flight ticket via WeChat and I also booked pick up service from WeChat at airport. Simple.
Ah, it’s not true. People in China have been prosecuted for using vpn, many either don’t know about it or are too afraid of possible consequences to try. And no, western apps are not on anyone’s radar because people are so used to almost all of them being banned or getting banned at some point. In fact, most iPhone users in China don’t even know about iMessages.
 

Aoligei

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2020
910
1,027
Ah, it’s not true. People in China have been prosecuted for using vpn, many either don’t know about it or are too afraid of poss consequences to try. And no, western apps are not on anyone’s radar because people are so used to almost all of them being banned or getting banned at some point. In fact, most iPhone users in China don’t even know about iMessages.

Go online and go Twitter. You will see plenty of Chinese mainland users.

Your false accusations is simple sheer ignorance. You are base on the impression that Chinese people are uninformed.

iMessage is only popular inside North America. People in other countries don’t need use iMessage or whatever.

I have lived in Canada for past 20 years. I never ever think western apps are better. I don’t really need Twitter, I don’t go Facebook, I occasionally log into Instagram etc. But WeChat, Alipay, Taobao etc are must download.
 
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