
More Chinese Mobile UI Trends - vincent_s
http://dangrover.com/blog/2016/01/31/more-chinese-mobile-ui-trends.html
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yoodenvranx
> Often starting a “VIP” membership in a premium app will add a special icon
> next to your name.

I still believe that this might be a revenue stream for stuff like Twitter or
Instagram. Just offer "VIP Badges" of several ranks from 5 to 500$ dollar a
year.

Especially on Instagram there are so many people flashing their riches so
there would be an inherent competition of who can afford the most expensive
VIP badges. You post pictures of your Bugatti but you don't have that
expensive black VIP badge? That's bad for your image.

There are also tons of "fitness models" who try to earn their livings through
Instagram and some sort of VIP badge would give them a lot more "street cred".

Just be sure that you don't turn this into a micropayment shitfest and do some
clever marketing which appeals to the public appearance of those rich Youtuber
and then suddenly everybody wants to be a VIP.

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ArnoldP
I think badges only work if there is actual wealth/value behind them. No one
will use them as true status symbols, rather just fun things, and they should
be priced as such.

What I think twitter should do is act as a notary of sorts, and the badges
would reflect real world accomplishments, like being graduated from a certain
institution, membership in a professional group, etc. Something that gives
your comments more weight. People/institutions would pay for this.

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yoodenvranx
Have a look at reddit.com/r/bodybuilding and see how many Instagram pictures
are posted there everyday. Especially stuff like bodybuilding or the female
fitness models are all about status. Or search on Youtube for "Rich kids of
instagram", all of them would buy status badges like that. Also the whole
hypercar and car tuning scene on Instagram is all about status.

And if kids see the 500$ black VIP badge of their Instagram heros then they
will most certainly invest 5$ or 10$ to get at least a low level badge.

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untog
Sure. But the way people use Instagram and the way Instagram officially
endorses using their product are two different things. If they internalized
expensive badges I suspect it would damage their brand quite a lot.

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tsunamifury
I see a lot of scammy/Grey UI patterns here which remind me a lot of the early
successful design patterns I saw in India in 2010-14.

In that situation, after "growth hacking" their way via scam UI and associated
revenue in VAS services, carriers had to endure massive losses when a backlash
forced government regulation.

I feel like the same thing is likely here, and a massive culling of the
scammiest mobile UI trends will occur.

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srikz
Can you give some examples of these. Interested in reading more about this.

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devy
Good job Dan! This blog post not only touch upon the mobile UI, but also
pretty much sums up the recent trends in mobile app product development and
mobile payment trends too.

For readers who don't know Dan already, he's currently a product manager at
Tencent's WeChat division [1].

[1]:
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangrover](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangrover)

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smilekzs
While some (if not most) of the practices sound laughable or downright
(Nigerian-scam-ish) fraudulent by Silicon Valley standards, they are brutally
effective at siphoning revenue from the huge rise of technically-illiterate
new smartphone users in Mainland China, especially in the economically under-
developed regions. (think Soviet-esque industrial towns, coal mines, etc.)

Another interesting practice covered by this article is the practice of not
only blatantly copying features, but also deliberately naming them as synonyms
(in the colloquial Chinese sense) to the original. In my experience most
people never tell a difference. I would imagine such practice getting sued
and/or bashed to death were it implemented in SV...

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lazaroclapp
I don't really think I would enjoy using those apps more than the single-
purpose sparse-content apps that are the norm in the US/EU market. However, I
fail to see in which way those are more fraudulent or scam-ish than S.V. apps.
About the only difference in that regard that I see on that list is that those
apps integrate stores where you can buy stuff, in addition to ads trying to
get you to buy stuff. Does the fact that the Ad link on the FB or Youtube app
take you out of the app and into Amazon.com make it any more "legitimate", per
se?

I do see some security implications with the whole "lots of custom browsers
connecting to random open Wi-Fi hotspots", though.

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mwcampbell
I'm surprised that the iPhone has any significant market share in China. I
would expect Chinese users to prefer phones from Chinese brands running
Chinese-developed ROMs (albeit based on Android, minus the Google proprietary
bits). Is the iPhone's hardware design and/or iOS really that much better?

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UVB-76
The Chinese middle class are all about status. The iPhone is a status symbol.

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SnowProblem
It sort of sounds like the Chinese see an iPhone similar to how Americans see
a BMW or Audi.

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Mikeb85
Chinese see cars (and handbags, and shoes) the same way as well.

China _is_ a massive market for German car brands - they buy ~30% of Audis
sold worldwide, ~25% of BMWs and ~18% of Mercs.

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swang75
Dan Grover, the author of this article, also was interviewed going over how a
kid from Vermont ended up working in Guangzhou, China on WeChat.

[https://soundcloud.com/wechatpodcast/interview-with-
product-...](https://soundcloud.com/wechatpodcast/interview-with-product-
manager-dan-grover-1)

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low
LINE, the most famous chat app in Japan, has the Send button goes outside the
keyboard. Okay, Japan is now a western country.

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boxer_pran77
Why do they make it so cluttered? Are there no design guidelines to follow as
to create a more user friendly version?

