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Comment by x3c | Hacker News Reader

More than the statistics, it's the stories that open your imagination to the unlock connectivity is bringing. Using WhatsApp to report timber theft is something I would never have guessed.

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This is something I found amazing about WeChat as well. You can schedule appointments with barbers, doctors, physicians, etc all through custom interfaces implemented by 3rd party vendors within the app. It's kind of like its own operating system. And for all of the needs that aren't already covered, you can always resort to basic text messaging (again through WeChat). This probably covers 100% of business communications: customers talking to vendors, vendors talking to customers, and vendors talking to other vendors. The only thing missing as far as I know is a way to communicate with government entities to e.g. file paperwork and such. But I'm sure that will come in time.

As of 2017, you can file court documents using WeChat.

https://www.scmp.com/tech/china-tech/article/2125804/tencent...

How does WeChat make money btw? Does it use ads? Or do people pay money?

Personally, using a communications network like WhatsApp to communicate things to each other is maybe the first use case I would have guessed.

More than the abstract notion of it being a communication platform, it's the specific usecases that open your imagination to the unlocks connectivity is bringing. Using WhatsApp to report timber theft is something I would never have guessed.

I thought you'd have guessed the spirit of the comment since you're so adept at guessing.

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