There's a pretty big difference in what UX "feels nice" to East Asian audiences vs Western audiences. This video provides some insight into why this might be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSMFnJnY7EA

The comments make it seem like it's more a case of users tolerating it due to the apps usefulness. Interesting video though, haven't had any contact with Chinese apps, so that was enlightening.

Tolerance of bad UI because of its usefulness (or if it is the only available option due to approval process and/or lack of competition) strikes me as a time-tested approach in enterprise environments. I dread to imagine that, but in real life. Is that how it is for people in the most populous country?

Minions of people use SAP daily that does not mean it's a nice thing to interact with.

I agree that numbers alone might not mean much, but I do think B2C apps with millions of users have a higher bar in terms of design and polish compared to B2B/ERP apps.

Also, fixed typo!

It's probably easier to switch jobs to avoid B2B apps you don't like than to avoid WeChat in China.

But it's not like you can choose in China either :)

You're making it sound as if the difference in choice between China and western countries is negligible. Surely that's not the case? If every VC company tries to pull you into their walled garden, I can still choose from among a variety of said walled gardens.

I could be wrong of course, since I don't know how many AliPay and WeChat competitors there are.

> If every VC company tries to pull you into their walled garden, I can still choose from among a variety of said walled gardens.

When they play it right, you're forced to choose all of them, or at least a significant subset of them, so that their partially overlapping offering add up to the actual thing you need.

Ah, modern video streaming services and every restaurant's special snowflake app.

The competitors at the consumer-facing super app level (with mini programs of varying awkwardness) include Meituan, XiaoHongShu, and to an extent, Toutiao, JD.com, and Baidu. But you don't need those gardens as a publisher if you're on Android--ironically because Google services are banned, there are over a dozen app stores to competing to fill the void. Compare that with the western duopoly of Apple App Store and Google Play.

That's all fine if the particular customers you want to reach are among the millions used to WeChat services.

We're in a thread talking about a technology that purports to make creating "native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website"; and the parent claimed that the Alipay/WeChats mini-app stacks are similar.

I don't think asking for examples of this resulting in an experience that's pleasant is unreasonable?

I think the point OP is making is that the relative pleasantry of the experience isn't as important for end users as it is for us developers. My anecdotal experience bears that out: I shudder when I see a web-heavy native app, my non-tech friends don't bat an eyelid. People learn UIs, no matter how janky, very quickly if the end goal is important to them.

I think my point was that an application that exists, is up to date and works is a better application than the one that doesn't exist or is stale because it's harder to write and maintain but feels (or would feel if it existed) nice and polished.

For practical purposes like buying stuff or accessing information I want practical applications that can be quickly iterated on.

FPL. Tone bodies with good tans. Don't see that with IP&L.

Well, do those WeChat services have competition? That's where I've seen the push for better UX: it's a signal to users that your product is overall higher quality. So not so much 'pretty power company technicians' and more 'Is the lobby of the hotel clean?'.