Why Chinese “SnapChat” Failed to Gain Traction?

1.The user habits. American users are used to subvert their image and make fun of it among their friends and families while Chinese tend to show their best sides to their acquaintances. So, the social network of SnapChat is based on the users’ phonebooks in their phones, that is to say, the acquaintances. If the applications do the same thing in China, Chinese users may be afraid to post the pictures that prone to harm their image.

2.The foothold of the Internet. Tony said that American users depend more on the social interaction and less on the chat, when Chinese users are on the contrary. So Twitter、Facebook are popular in America while QQ, WeChat are popular in China. And it is the emergence of SnapChat that fills the blank of the photo-message application in America market and meet the need of point-to-point photo sharing strongly.

3.The habit of sharing photos. Chinese users do not prefer sharing photos, said Tony. He argued that most of the American netizens are middle-class, but the proportion is just 20 percent in Chinese netizens. That is to say, many of the Chinese users do not have a fabulous life to share, the situation is hard for all the photo-sharing applications in China.

Tony also referred that some adjustments have been made to Kacha to adapt to Chinese users. For example, the social network of Kacha is based on the strangers and the content that will “burn after reading” is no longer limited to photos. And he claimed that is why Kacha is not afraid of the competition of QQ and Wechat, because the social network they based on is the acquaintances which will make the Chinese users hesitate when they are going to post the wacky pictures.

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The photo-messaging application SnapChat has turned down a $3 billion acquisition request offered by Facebook a few days ago, raising a heated discussion. Although some web pundits argued that it was insane, still, told us just how popular SnapChat is.

But in China, it seems that the copycats of SnapChat are not that lucky. Kacha (咔嚓), Truth or Dare (敢聊), Paopaoxin (泡泡信), Moumou (某某)…… All these similar apps haven’t won much users in China. Why the “burn-after-reading” applications failed to achieve the same as SnapChat in China? Tony, the founder of Kacha, answered these questions through our phone interview.

“There will be no way out if you just copy,” said Tony. He claimed that there are three main differences between American and Chinese users, which leads to the different situation between Snapchat and similar apps in China:

1.The user habits. American users are used to subvert their image and make fun of it among their friends and families while Chinese tend to show their best sides to their acquaintances. So, the social network of SnapChat is based on the users’ phonebooks in their phones, that is to say, the acquaintances. If the applications do the same thing in China, Chinese users may be afraid to post the pictures that prone to harm their image.

2.The foothold of the Internet. Tony said that American users depend more on the social interaction and less on the chat, when Chinese users are on the contrary. So Twitter、Facebook are popular in America while QQ, WeChat are popular in China. And it is the emergence of SnapChat that fills the blank of the photo-message application in America market and meet the need of point-to-point photo sharing strongly.

3.The habit of sharing photos. Chinese users do not prefer sharing photos, said Tony. He argued that most of the American netizens are middle-class, but the proportion is just 20 percent in Chinese netizens. That is to say, many of the Chinese users do not have a fabulous life to share, the situation is hard for all the photo-sharing applications in China.

Tony also referred that some adjustments have been made to Kacha to adapt to Chinese users. For example, the social network of Kacha is based on the strangers and the content that will “burn after reading” is no longer limited to photos. And he claimed that is why Kacha is not afraid of the competition of QQ and Wechat, because the social network they based on is the acquaintances which will make the Chinese users hesitate when they are going to post the wacky pictures.