📱🇨🇳 New chinese app added: Baidu, more than just the Google of China

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<!–[if mso | IE]> Hey there! This week I did something different from what I've been doing over the past couple weeks. I built a new section on the site for Chinese apps and covered the biggest one of them all: Baidu. Baidu (百度) on UI Sources → About Baidu Baidu is known as the Google of China, but in reality it's a lot more than that. They've been around since 2000, are the #4 website in the world and #1 in China. They have projects in everything Google does: autonomous vehicles, artifical intelligence, smart speakers, search, advertising, maps, videos and more. But also a lot of stuff that Google doesn't: Shopping apps, financial services, social media, ticket bookings and more. Chinese design pattern: Bundling If you use Google products, you probably know that the dominant trend in western apps is unbundling. Search, Maps, Documents, Drive, Translate etc are all separate apps. Same with Facebook – Messenger, Pages Manager etc. If they were to launch a new product, it is very likely that it would be a separate app. With Chinese companies, the trend is of bundling. Or having a "All in one app", with a lot of mini apps within it. While explanations of this trend vary, it's likely a way to save space in Android dominated markets and also to use the existing network effects to jumpstart new services. Very reminiscent of online portals like Yahoo back in the day. Chinese design pattern: Competitions and gamification Another interesting pattern was the gamification and competitions. At any time, there are over ten active campaigns, each with a unique design and interactions. Some of these require you to do simple tasks like inviting friends, others are more elaborate challenges like singing. Some are lucky draws, others are game-like promotions. Chinese design pattern: Data saver The data saver mode detects if you're on cellular data or on weak WiFi and shows you the data needed to stream and an option to buy a data pack. These data packs can directly be bought in the app and even whitelist certain apps affiliated to Baidu such that you can use them for free without counting against your data limit. See all patterns This the first Chinese among many that I'm planning to add over the next few months. You can take a look at the upcoming apps on here. Creating teardowns of Chinese apps is harder than documenting regular apps because there's a lot of research to understand local context, translations to be done and background info to be collected. I'd love to hear some feedback from you. Did you find this post interesting? Moving forward, should I do a mix of Chinese and Western apps? Just hit reply to this email or send me a tweet at @abnux. I'd really appreciate it! In addition, if you enjoyed it, please share it with your friends and colleagues! Seeing new subscribers every week is what keeps me going. Have a great week ahead! Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to UI Sources: Subscribe Brought to you by Buttondown, the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter.