These may be great products that have advanced the state-of-the-art, but how is Wechat novel?
It appears to be a pretty generic chat app similar to WhatsApp, which debuted a year earlier. Of course, almost all western products (including whatsapp) are derivative of something that came earlier too.
Oh Wechat is much more than a "generic chat app" -- it has payments and a third party app platform. Facebook messenger is trying to move in this direction too.
Wechat has a eco system that links to your checking account. Therefore, you can pay your bills: Taxi, fresh fruit from street, pre-order movie seat while you are on the way. I had an two weeks no-wallet-challenge last year in china. The 3rd day I gave up, not because it doesn't work, but it sounds like documentary about surfing internet nonstop for 24 back to Y2K years.
I used to be as sceptical as you are, until someone living in china for a decade explained to me people in business no longer exchange emails, but they exchange wechat contact via qr codes then have group work discussion in wechat.
Then, for the first time i thought novelty is coming from the east and not the west ( i live in europe).
The only last thing that gave me a tiny little bit of hope, was that even in China, the top scientists working on advanced R&D tech still come from the west. But for how long ? I would say max 5 years. I'm still betting on the next apple or google coming from china.
