@ouguoc @Zamfr Good point. They clearly have market power, but perhaps it’s less due to what we call “lock-in” than simple monopoly. My understanding is you just can’t live and transact normally in China without WeChat. It’s not that once stuck, you can’t jump to alternatives, but that there really aren’t alternatives that can do what they do.

Perhaps on the road to totality there was a period of successful lock-in helping make it possible. But there might have been political support too. 1/

@ouguoc @Zamfr But WeChat, at least, is an everything app. I think (from my 10-years-dated experience of visiting) there’s no alternative to WeChat as a kind of cash substitute for small transactions. But China does seem to have a much more diverse chat / social media scene than WeChat. So maybe where there are alternatives it’s not so sticky?

I sure don’t know enough to say! /fin