'WeChat' Tag

• Mobile messaging: is it (finally) the Americans’ time ?

  April 12, 2016

  Long time readers of this blog will recognize my fascination with mobile messaging apps for a while now (Don’t shoot the Messenger, Line vs WeChat, My personalized Line stickers, etc.). For years now I’ve argued that the modern wave of messaging rose in Asia, with the West playing catch-up. Last year I wrote about my […]

  posted in technology by mark bivens

• LINE vs. WeChat. Get ready to rumble.

  May 20, 2014

  An enthusiastic user of LINE, Mark Bivens faces off against Jerry Yang, a trainee at Truffle Capital and 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 […]

  posted in technology by mark bivens

• How to create a monopoly for your app in 2014

  March 4, 2014

  Pop quiz: what do Klyqme, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Line have in common? Answer: they all enjoy quasi-monopolies in certain markets for their apps. Klyqme is the pre-eminent sms-based social network in Indonesia (which is rapidly threatening to displace India among the elite group of BRICs in my opinion, but that’s fodder for another blog post) […]

  posted in technology by mark bivens

• Don’t shoot the messenger (app)

  October 29, 2013

  In continuity of last week’s piece on the arrival the Japanese mobile game models to Europe, I thought it appropriate to discuss another tech trend in Asia which makes me enthusiastic for potential investment opportunities, even here on the old continent: the next-generation of mobile messaging apps. Most Europeans are familiar with WhatsApp, Viber, Kik, […]

  posted in technology, venture capital by mark bivens