Consider the influential company Tencent which owns WeChat, a Chinese application serving over 700m users in services like we know as WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, Amazon, Uber, PayPal and many other services that have not even been digitized in most of our (western) daily lives. Yet, according to the New York Times it is not the variety of things you can do on WeChat that makes it so powerful, it is the fact that it is all installed in one application. The groundbreaking structure of WeChat provides an all-in service for which we do not need anything or anyone else. What should we prepare for if concepts such as WeChat start to get really powerful and influential in Europe?
In order to create an application that can integrate all the services you as a consumer need, the company needs data. Of course, it is clear that an enormous amount of value can be created when an application knows where you live, what your interests are and what you like to eat, but that brings some ethical and economic questions. For instance, are we willing to sacrifice (some) privacy to create a more efficient and effective application? Or, do we let network effects create increasingly powerful monopolists to promote convenience and interconnectedness? These and many more questions are tradeoffs that we, as a society, need to consider whether that is through regulation on government level or in our personal daily lives.
Of course, aside from these general questions and issues, we have not considered WeChat’s main stakeholder yet, namely the Chinese government. The great wall of China is nothing in comparison to “the Great Firewall of China” or as the New York Times calls it; China’s intranet. As current western “hub” companies are banned in China, a handful Chinese companies created their own monopolies in every aspect of the upcoming economies and considering China’s 1.4b inhabitants, it makes a pretty big impact. As data-driven companies such as Tencent are forced to share obtained data with the Chinese government, an “Orwellian” society arises. Entering a single-application-society would likely lead to an all-knowing company (or government) which uses user data to define company strategy (or political campaigns and regulation). Our daily lives turn into data points. Is this a bad thing? That depends on the people leading a company or country. These data points can be used as a powerful tool in social control. History teaches us that malicious people have risen to the top or even have been democratically chosen to lead. That is why we, as a society, should ask ourselves the question if we want to centralize this power of data into one company, one government, or even one person.
In conclusion, company ethics, regulation, and our personal believes will either keep us from entering a single-application-society, drive us into a prosperous and value creating single-application-society or push us in an Orwellian society in which our daily lives are just data points for governments and powerful companies.
References:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/14/wechat-trap-chinas-diaspora
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec77S25kuVs
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/technology/wechat-china-united-states.html
https://www.ft.com/content/6b61aaaa-3325-44dc-8110-bf4a351185fb
Great read, really liked it! In all honesty, aren’t we in fact already a data point in our daily life for governments and companies. You can be tracked down to the exact millimeter of your current location, companies can see where and when you’ve last spent money, they know your buying behavior, but also have access to your sleeping cycle data, energy usage, etc. And so I wonder how much our lives would change if we had a single-application society. Sure, ti offers great opportunities for efficiency and what not and it probably means that we can eliminate pretty much all of the apps we have on our devices nowadays, but other than that I don’t think we’ll realize much of a difference. To be perfectly honest, I can’t wait to have a WeChat-like app here in the Netherlands. As a matter of fact, I’d prefer a Dutch or European version of WeChat rather than WeChat becoming available here with regards to data collection and governmental access. With all due respect, I’d rather the Dutch government holding my data than the Chinese government (although they probably already do)
Hi! Well written and certainly an interesting read. You mentioned the power of network effects which initially may seem beneficial. If your friends are members of a centralized application, then one would consider (near blindly) to register for the application. Yet, putting all your eggs into 1 basket usually is not a profound strategy. Perhaps society should reevaluate if one deems beneficial to surge towards 1 super application. It has often been said in old dusty economics books that the government should decide for the welfare of its’ citizens. Therefore, perhaps the government should impose legislation which would render the allocation of data towards a single application. Difficult to impose and limit growth of a super application, however, in the long run centralized data may offer greater harm than good.
Hi Matthieu,
I really liked your article! I find this topic very dystopian and fascinating at the same time. Sometimes it is nice to know that I am living in Europe which is a bit less adoptive to certain privacy-intrusive applications. I truly wonder how this will play out, but many fear a future where we are all hooked into something like WeChat monitored in every step. I noticed you stayed rather neutral in the article, and am wondering what you exact view or opinion is on this?
Since we all know that “hub” companies are the future, maybe rather than fighting the inevitable, we should learn to manage it and introduce legal/ethical frameworks to cope with it.
Kind regards,
Olivia van Aalst