Line vs Wechat

An enthusiastic user of LINE, Mark Bivens faces off against Jerry Yang, a WeChat apologist, on the merits of each app. MB: First, I think we can agree on one thing: that WhatsApp, BBM, Viber, Telegram, eBuddy, Nimbuzz, SnapChat, and even Kik do not swim in the same pond as Line, WeChat, and KakaoTalk.

To suggest otherwise would be like comparing a goldfish to Moby Dick. So the real debate, if one is to be had, is about Line vs. WeChat vs. KakaoTalk. JY: I fully agree. People need to stop comparing WeChat to WhatsApp. Furthermore, I suggest we call stalemate on KakaoTalk, since, impressive as it seems to be, neither of us uses it (nor does anyone outside South Korea it would seem). MB: Deal. And since we’re on the topic of international adoption, LINE wins hands down. The LINE app has sewn up the market in its home country of Japan (which is the world’s third largest economy, I remind you). Moreover, LINE has conquered your home country of Taiwan, and has achieved considerable adoption in Thailand, Indonesia, India, Kakao’s home market of Korea, and even Spain and Mexico !

JY : Well, while I’m also a heavy LINE user and I agree that the international adoption of LINE is impressive compared to WeChat, I guess what’s obvious is — if you have 1.36 billion people in your home market, it’s less of a concern, at least in the short term, whether to go international or not, right? And remember that Chinese are the most mobile people in the world throughout the history. In almost every country you visit, there are a substantial amount of Chinese immigrants. It’s fairly common today that when I make a new Chinese friend in Paris, they ask me to connect on WeChat. And if you’re doing business with Chinese, it goes without saying that you have to connect with them on WeChat, as it’s the single most practical way to reach out to them when they’re back in the country.

That means that anyone who has a substantial stake in a Chinese relationship will also be an automatic WeChat user, whether in Oslo or Bamako. line_wechat_map MB: That’s a fair counterpoint. Still, that means that WeChat’s user interface and flow needs to accommodate Western habits. How does that stack up compared to LINE ? JY: Personally I don’t sense there’s any cultural element in WeChat’s interface — I use the English version and it feels as native as using any English app on my iPhone.

The only Chinese element is, of course, that most of the content available in WeChat, be it messages from your friend or news feed services, is Chinese. But now that you brought up the topic of interface, I have to say on this account, LINE really has a lot of room for improvement — random layers of menu, bizarre locations for options, duplicated functions, etc. By comparison, WeChat’s interface is clean, intuitive and natural. It even induces me, fairly painlessly, to try out certain functions designed (obviously) for match-making, such as Shake. I’ve never been someone patient enough to go the distance unless I absolutely have to, e.g. filing a tax return. The fact that I even bother to try this kind of match-making function on my non-primary chat app is a testament to the effort WeChat put into the interface.

 MB: You’re right, the LINE interface might appear at first blush like a hotch-potch of functionality, but I suspect that’s mainly due to the app’s meteoric rise in usage (now over 400 million registered!) and resulting demand for new features. LINE does a pretty good job of regularly updating their app to improve the cohesion of the various functions. My biggest gripe with the LINE interface is its lack of an iPad version. JY: I feel sorry for you that you even use the growth of LINE users as a defense — just last year alone, WeChat grew from 195M of monthly active users in Q1 to 355M in Q4! Yes, they benefitted from only having to worry about the operations in China, but it’s still an amazing growth story.

And that growth for sure didn’t hold them back from building functionality, which by the way could claim to be the most versatile and fully integrated experience among all the chat apps! MB: Well, LINE clearly dominates in its ingenious sticker strategydoraemon_nobita. I know you’re going to argue that WeChat also offers stickers, which makes sense. Stickers are of tremendous importance in cultures where communication involves layers of honorifics and deep context. I’ve even witnessed passengers on the train in Japan exercise careful deliberation in choosing just the right sticker to convey the proper tone and mood in their chat. But I think LINE wins in the sticker battle. Not only do they generate significant revenues from sales of sticker packs (which seem to have drawn inspiration from the old record album model (i.e. two tracks of ‘killer’ and 8 tracks of ‘filler’), but stickers also create switching costs among users who have invested in sticker sets and would not be able to carry them over to another messenger app. LINE admirably employs sticker campaigns to raise funds for charitable causes. They have also wisely opened up the creation of stickers to outside illustrators in the form of a creators marketplace, which will foster an army of ambassadors for sticker promotion, and hence promotion of LINE. JY: Okay, that one I agree. As a heavy LINE sticker user and client — I counted 13 paid stickers in my arsenal — let me just say it’s amazing how a company can generate so much potential from something so simple. And I also see the potential of the LINE bear-rabbit couple to spin off into a standalone franchise. It will be fun to see how a company from a country that gave birth to successful character sans histoire like Hello Kitty plans this one out. However, despite the limited amount of stickers in the WeChat Sticker Shop, there’s at least one thing that it does better — it has animated stickers!! This is nothing new.

Back in the days of Microsoft Messengers, we in Taiwan were used to all kinds of animated stickers, created completely by Taiwanese artists, like these. Having animated stickers just gives an extra dimension to the whole sticker experience. It’s really odd that LINE has yet to implement it. Well, WeChat has it and you can even press on a sticker to see an enlarged animated demo before purchasing the whole set. To be fair, this should be fairly easy to implement. It’s only time when LINE enables this as well. I’m happy for the huge army of MSN sticker creators in Taiwan. They shall see their works shine on the global — or at least the Asian stage. MB: Totally agree on the franchise potential. Moreover, LINE has proven it can bridge monetization from online to offline. The app has so cleverly built brands around cute LINE characters like Kuma (Brown the bear), Usagi (Cony), Moon, James, and Sally, that the physical incarnations of these characters in the form of stuffed animals, for example, are highly sought after. I’ve heard of LINE representatives mobbed at conferences when handing out free samples. Walk in any Don Quixote store in Japan (ドン・キホーテ) and you’ll witness precious shelf space allocated to LINE stuffed animals, figurines, iPhone holders, pencil cases, etc. Global fashion retailer Uniqlo now sells T-shirts with LINE characters.

Merchandising thus offers an interesting complementary revenue stream. Even more importantly, and as you imply, let’s not underestimate the brand potential of these characters. The beauty of this strong brand of characters is that it can withstand technology disruption, adapting to new markets as new products emerge. Already last summer Tokyo TV launched a TV series based on this adorable LINE family. We all know what that ragtag collection of superheroes did for Marvel comics… JY: Interesting that you mentioned the Marvel franchise. It’s exactly what I have in mind on this subject. One of the well-studied cases in the b-schools as you and I both know is the Renaissance of Disney.

The power of de-virtualizing content and profiting from physical products that prove irresistible to consumers and difficult or too costly to plagiarize is generally recognized to be the force behind Disney’s path back to glory. I don’t see why LINE couldn’t do the same. And if they make it work, for sure this will float them beyond the next technological disruption and even the ones after. But enough on the social networking part. With WeChat, what impresses me as much is the professional usage scenario.

I recommend this article written by Paul Bischoff in TechInAsia, Guanxi 2.0: how WeChat groups are changing the game in China’s tech and startup scene. Bischoff points out correctly that in Chinese cultures, there’s less separation of personal lives from professional lives as in western countries. Everything blends together. Taking advantage of this, not only does WeChat allow users to connect LinkedIn to its account, its Group function figures large in the professional scenario. Essentially the Group function in WeChat is more like a forum than mere group messaging. There’s a moderator who has the right to add users beyond the threshold and he or she also really moderates the discussions in the groups to ensure they stay true to the Group objectives. Bischoff outlined some inspiring anecdotes of using Group functions to resolve business conflicts. MB: Great stuff. Indeed, I experienced that first-hand on a recent trip to Shanghai, where I installed WeChat and within an hour received a professional voice message from the director of m&a for Cisco China, who happened to be an old friend that I had lost track of years ago. I can imagine the value of integrating group collaboration functions will extend messenger app usage from leisure time into the workplace, especially in cultures where the line between social and professional life is blurred. What’s next? Payments? E-commerce?

 JY: I guess for those of us in the wechat_xiaomi_flashWest that follow tech news in Asia, it’s widely known that last November WeChat launched a very successful flash sales with Xiaomi. Based on some reports, the red-hot mobile phone maker sold 150,000 smartphones in less than 10 minutes on WeChat exclusively. And there’s good reason to believe that this is not just a one-time stunt. Just as the mobile phone growth far outstripped that of the landline phone due to the high cost of landline infrastructure, we see similar affinity for online or mobile commerce in Chinese consumers compared to brick-and-mortar experience. Most consumers in China are more receptive to purchase online or on mobile than their Western counterparts. In a country where the retail network and pricing remain highly fragmented, the unifying online purchase experience is simply too good for most Chinese consumers to pass up. A report by UBS earlier this year claimed that the 2-trillion-yuan (US$323 billion) e-commerce business accounted for about 8% of total retail sales in China last year, up from 6% in 2012. And they expect China’s e-commerce penetration to surpass that of the United States. With the success of several flash sales, WeChat seems to be every bit as authentic an m-commerce player as Alibaba is dominant in e-commerce. And WeChat parent company, Tencent, wasted no time to move forward by teaming up with another giant e-commerce company JD.com earlier this year. The kind of back-and-forth media onslaught between Jack Ma (Alibaba) and Pony Ma (Tencent) reminds me of the press war between Apple and Google. Moreover, apparently brands can now manage official accounts on WeChat directly. MB: That’s impressive. LINE too, has demonstrated its leadership is mobile commerce. Thailand is a great example. The country boasts 24 million LINE users. Last December, LINE began a series of flash sales, in which it promoted LINE character-branded smartphone cases. They sold out within 25 minutes apparently. Since that successful experience, LINE has executed several more such events, including sales of Maybelline lipstick and coupons for a local supermarket chain. This infographic from TechInAsia illustrates LINE’s fruitful experiences with flash sales in Thailand. JY: I saw that as well, amazing stuff. The potential things that could be done with chat apps are simply beyond the wildest dream of any chat app pioneers. In fact, that’s exactly the reason I am not a big fan of Mr. Jan Koum, the CEO of WhatsApp. I mean, I respect the focus he instilled in this incredible app, and everybody would definitely love to trade places with him for that Facebook deal. However, listening to him ramble on how WhatsApp wants to keep it simple and how it believes reliable text messaging is what really counts and that stickers and stuff are but gimmicks, it gives me a déjà-vu — that was exactly what Blackberry claimed when they started to lose market share to iPhone. Network efficiency and reliability are all good things, but somehow I feel the lion’s share of the value chain won’t be in text messaging. The reason is very simple: the breakneck progress in networking hardware and infrastructure will eliminate any palpable advantage in speed and reliability among the various chat apps. In other words, by the time WhatsApp realizes customers are indifferent to the KPIs they uphold, it could be too late.

 And for the meager $20M revenue WhatsApp generated last year, it’s hard to believe that its users will be willing to dole out more for messaging than what LINE users are already paying for “gimmicks”. If I were (still) a shareholder of Facebook, I would cross my fingers that Mr. Zuckerberg has a much grander plan for this marriage. MB: Given Zuckerberg’s imagination, he probably does have a grand vision for his new toy. Nonetheless, as we seem to agree, LINE and WeChat represent platforms of an entirely different league. As Mona Nomura recently pointed out, Asian chat apps are more than chat apps, they are turning into ecosystems. It will be interesting to see how these Asian tigers impact connected consumers’ mindshare currently dominated by tech giants in the West.

Hackers claim to have exploit for iCloud, use vulnerability to disable Activation Lock

A group of hackers calling themselves "Team DoulCi" say that they have figured out a way to execute a man-in-the-middle attack that gives them the ability to intercept users' Apple ID credentials as well as unlock iOS devices that have been made unusable by Activation Lock.

 The attack is made possible because the Windows version of iTunes does not properly verify security certificates, according to security researcher Mark Loman of SurfRight. The disclosure was first made on Dutch technology website Tweakers.net. The hackers, who are not affiliated with Loman, have demonstrated the attack's efficacy by sharing screenshots of what they say are calls to Apple's iCloud activation service.

A number of others have chimed in on social media with similar success stories. Apple recently patched a similar vulnerability in OS X and iOS, but iTunes on Windows remains susceptible. Loman believes that the issue is "either a beginner's mistake, or it was done on purpose" and alleges that it may have been designed to allow intelligence agencies access to iCloud. Until Apple issues a fix, users are advised not to use iCloud services over public Wi-Fi networks. Users of older iOS devices that no longer receive software updates, such as the first-generation iPad and iPhone 3GS, should exercise particular caution as the vulnerability cannot be patched in those devices.

5 reason Ios and Android should consider dumping their messaging apps for BBM

Just as BlackBerry appeared doomed to fade into irrelevancy, the company’s popular chat application BlackBerry Messenger stormed back on to the scene, making its way to the iOS and Android app stores.

Pitting a well known brand against relative newcomers such as Kik, LINE and recent Facebook acquisition WhatsApp, BBM managed to quickly steal a huge segment of the audience for itself. In case you still haven’t given it a try, James Richardson makes a strong case for BBM in a recent article at CrackBerry, so we decided to share his favorite features to see if this list is enough to convert you. Know when your messages are delivered and read: Like it or not, our chat applications now hold us accountable for timely responses. Whether you’re on Facebook, iChat or WhatsApp, you and your friends can see when your message has arrived and when it’s been read, but some apps are more reliable than others.

For example, WhatsApp uses a check mark and a double check mark, but the double check mark only means that the message has reached the server, not the recipient’s phone. On BBM, ‘D’ means delivered and ‘R’ means read. It’s simple and clean, the way a chat app should be. Share files with friends: Most mobile messaging apps contain some degree of file sharing, but it’s a crapshoot whether or not the interface will be at all intuitive. Fortunately, BBM’s file sharing menu is about as straightforward as they come. Tap the paperclip to the left of the chat, select the share icon and six buttons will pop up on the bottom of the screen. You’ll be able to access media, appointments, contacts, location, files and even your Dropbox account.

Never leave friends or family hanging: Have you ever been patiently waiting in a restaurant for a friend, scrolling through old photos or bookmarked websites to pass the time? With BBM’s Glympse integration, your friends can share their location in real-time for up to four hours, allowing you to keep track of them as they make their delayed approach. Keep your contact list manageable: Chat apps such as Kik and WhatsApp are infamous for their ability to fill up with every contact on your phone before you’ve had a chance to sort through the list, but BBM is much more understanding. The only way you’re ever going to receive a message on BBM is if you decide to share your PIN with a friend or vice versa. Additional features: All in all, BBM isn’t terribly different from its competition. Although it manages to do many things better than other apps on the market, many of the features are identical to those of Kik, LINE and WhatsApp. In order to differentiate itself, BlackBerry has included some extra content within BBM, most notably BBM Channels. Channels allow BBM users to subscribe to their favorite content creators directly from the app, further condensing the mobile experience and keeping users engaged. With well over 100 million registered users, BBM has staked its claim in the chat market. BlackBerry might not be drawing in quite as many monthly active users as WhatsApp, but as the company continues to double down on updates and new features, don’t expect BBM to disappear any time soon.http://bgr.com/2014/05/13/5-reasons-to-download-bbm/

Beware when you open facebook from hacker

MYFOXNY.COM - To promote a video game called "Watch Dogs," the game's maker has launched a website called Digital Shadow to data-mine your Facebook account. "The premise is that a hacker is trying to take over a city with only his smartphone," says Paul Wagenseil, a senior security editor for Tom's Guide.

 When given permission, Digital Shadow analyzes all the public information about you and your friends available on the social network to create a file detailing everything from your most-used words to your annual salary to your personality. "Neurotic, depressive, deviant, submissive and volatile," says Wagenseil, who reminds us that your digital shadow report may not reflect the truth.

But it does display the way companies might see you with only your public Facebook profile to go on. Digital Shadow also looks at with whom you interact most often and then places them into categories. It's labeled my little sister as a liability, my friend Alex as a stalker, and I-Hwei and Katherine as pawns who can be used against me. "It's as if you're the hacker in the game and you're using your Facebook connections to get ahead of the game," Wagenseil says. But this game's not just predicting some eventual reality.

Nearly every digital service already tracks our every digital move and adds it to our ever-growing digital profile. "They may not realize that it's all being aggregated by Facebook and by Twitter and by Google and used for those companies' own purposes," Wagenseil says. "What you put up there pays for the service. And other people might be buying it." So while we go about our daily lives handling our business the tech giants of today see us people as a matrix of fluctuating numbers to be sold, traded, and exploited for their profit.http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/25326213/beware-what-your-digital-shadow-says-about-you#axzz32RmcY1o1

China plans to strengthen internet security to foil 'hostile forces' Technology

Sunday 18 May 2014 - 12:20pm China plans to strengthen its internet security because "overseas hostile forces" are using the internet to "attack, slander and spread rumours." Picture: AFP PHOTO / BULENT KILIC BEIJING - A Chinese official in charge of regulating the internet has said Beijing must strengthen internet security because "overseas hostile forces" are using the Internet to "attack, slander and spread rumours", state media said on Sunday. Wang Xiujun, the deputy director of the China National Internet Information Office, said political security is fundamental, reported The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. ...the struggle for ideological penetration RELATED STORIES China censors may have caused huge internet outage: group China soars to 618m online users Psst, did you hear? China's crackdown against online rumours Subscribe to our newsletters Wang's remarks coincide with a broad crackdown on online freedom of expression that has intensified since President Xi Jinping came to power last year. The crackdown has drawn criticism from rights advocates at home and abroad. "Now, overseas hostile forces are using the Internet as a main channel to penetrate and destroy (us)," Wang was quoted as saying. "Using the name of 'Internet freedom' to repeatedly attack, slander and spread rumours in an effort to undermine our country's stability and national security." Winning "the struggle for ideological penetration" would "decide to a great extent the future of our party and country", Wang said. In February, Xi took the reins of a government body for Internet security, saying he aimed to turn China into a "cyber power". He said then that working on public opinion online was a long-term responsibility and the Internet could be used to "spread discipline". The party renewed a campaign on online discourse last year, threatening legal action against people whose perceived rumours on microblogs are reposted more than 500 times or seen by more than 5,000 people. China maintains tight control over the media. Censorship is widespread and Internet users cannot access information about many topics without special software to circumvent restrictions.

 Wang said China wants to strengthen its security of networks and information systems in part due to intrusions in cyberspace by foreign governments, according to the People's Daily. The case of former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden showed that "a few countries have used their superiority in Internet resources and information technology to conduct large-scale Internet surveillance and to steal a large volume of political, economic, military and corporate secrets", Wang said. He did not name any country but questions over cyber-espionage have long cast a shadow over China-U.S. ties, with each side accusing the other of spying. The Defence Ministry said in March China would beef up its internet security after the New York Times and Der Spiegel reported that documents leaked by Snowden said the U.S. National Security Agency accessed servers at China's Huawei Technologies to obtain sensitive data and monitor executives' communications.

Windows make Internet Security at Internet Explorer

Windows XP, which Microsoft discontinued support for on April 8, will get a patch, too. If you have automatic updates turned on, you won't need to take any action to get the security patch. SEE ALSO: Windows XP Isn't Safe to Use Anymore. Here's What to Do Next. The news should cheer consumers, Homeland Security and the millions of stubborn Windows XP users around the world. This does not mean Microsoft is turning Windows XP support back on, though. From the Microsoft blog post on the patch: "Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, and we continue to encourage customers to migrate to a modern operating system, such as Windows 7 or 8.1. Additionally, customers are encouraged to upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer, IE 11." Is it too late? Even as the fix slides into computers around the world, questions remain about Internet Explorer's future viability in the marketplace.

There was, to be certain, a whisper campaign about this marking the beginning of the end. However, some industry experts don't see this as a watershed moment for the once-dominant web browser. "I don’t expect a huge backlash on Internet Explorer’s market share," said Gartner security analyst Lawrence Pingree. "In fact, I think this helps drive adoption of upgrades to Windows 7 from XP."

 Pingree suggested that Homeland Security probably made its recommendation because it was worried that Windows XP wouldn't get a patch, which would leave users without a choice. Still, industry watchers know Microsoft needed to move fast. “Browsers are essential to the web, and if it becomes vulnerable people will lose trust in it," said Tim Bajarin, the president of Creative Strategies. "Microsoft and all browser vendors must be more vigilant and deal with any holes fast and judiciously." Is Internet Explorer safe? This most recent security black eye may have distorted Internet Explorer's actual record on security, Pingree suggested.Microsoft remains committed to the browser, versions of which exists across its entire product line of desktop and mobile operating systems. The company most recently introduced Internet Explorer 11. Not-so-global dominance Once the leading web browser, Internet Explorer has lost significant ground in recent years, mostly to Google's Chrome. Now, at roughly 58% of global browser usage market share, it has only the slimmest margin over competitors, according to Net Applications.

 In the U.S., that number is even smaller. As of March of this year, Net Applications reported Internet Explorer had 53.54% usage. There's also the reality that web surfers rely on increasingly on mobile devices; as of late last year, Microsoft's mobile OS accounted for just 3.1% of the market. Making the switch Pingree insists consumers won't switch browsers because most don't even know how to do it — but in reality, consumers are switching already.

 Recent earnings reports from both Twitter and Facebook indicate that most of their revenue and/or activity is coming from mobile users who rarely surf the web on desktops and laptops. As we ease into the fourth year of our post-PC world (the beginning marked by the introduction of the iPad in 2010), that trend will continue. Many millions still own and use desktop computers every day, but they're living mainly in mobile. [Ed Note: An earlier version of this story said mobile versions of IE were affected, as well. Although the tablet OSes Windows RT and Windows 8.1 RT are affected, the mobile OS for Windows Phone is not.]

Protect yourself from the Internet Bugs

INTERNET has become a place that we visit on a daily basis and this means that we need to be aware of the many dangers that are out there too. There are all kinds of security issues that people need to learn about and this range from the basics of identifying scams from legitimate offers to knowing how to safely browse websites without becoming vulnerable to attacks. There are many browsers available for surfing the web, but the even the most popular ones can have vulnerabilities that we need to take into consideration.

Internet explorer is one of the most frequently used by millions of people all over the world and there are some security bugs you need to take into consideration. There is a very serious security bug on Internet Explorer and it has yet to be fixed. This bug can allow hackers to gain access to computers, steal passwords and steal all sorts of vital and private information from people. This is something that is causing quite a concern for many users because the few ways to get rid of the bug require either some technical knowledge or the purchase of special software to protect the computer and get rid of the vulnerability. There is also the option of disabling all flash features and plugins but this would mean that you could not watch any flash videos, website banners or games. This would also include YouTube and other sites that stream with FLV format. It would seem like the best solution and the most practical one for most people is to simply switch to another browser that doesn’t have this vulnerabilities. You have two options that you can easily adjust to and they both offer great security and easy navigation options. One of them is Firefox and the other is Chrome. They both have options that allow you to import all of your bookmarks from Internet Explorer and this way you won’t lose all the sites you have been bookmarking all this time. A lot of people seem to have problems trying out new software for all kinds of activities online, but the best thing to do is try out other options and see if they are good for you. There is no need to put your information at risk just because you are used to browsing the internet with IE and you don’t feel like getting used to a new interface. The great thing about internet browsers in general is that they are very similar and you will get used to a new one in no time. You also need to consider switching to a new operating system if you are still using XP. The support and update patches for XP will stop being released and this will make it very vulnerable to all kinds of new attacks. For this reason you really need to update your OS soon and we recommend either win7 or win8. For some people Windows 7 is more user friendly but other think that Windows 8 is better. Both of them are very secure and get constant security patches released. The most important thing is to be able to browse the web safely and avoid having any vital information stole from you. Most of us are using the internet for a lot more than just chatting and checking emails. We log into out bank accounts, check our credit reports and do all kinds of activities that involve the use of a lot of vital information that we don’t want anyone out there being able to see and steal.

This is why we need to keep security in mind at all times. Stay safe online.http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.voice-online.co.uk/blog/protect-yourself-internet-explorer-security-bugIt's been the better part of a week since Microsoft revealed that virtually every single version of its Internet Explorer web browser was vulnerable to a particularly nasty attack, one so scary that U.S. Homeland Security recommended people not to use the browser until the hole is patched. Now, it is: Microsoft will deliver the patch for all versions of Internet Explorer on Thursday (including Windows RT).