What makes Digital Experience in China unique? with Chenyu Zheng

Leong Chung Wei Bernard -

Chenyu Zheng, former product marketing manager from Uber and now author, joined us in a two part conversation to discuss the unique digital experience in China and the Uber China mafia & their impact to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in China after merger with Didi. In the first part, she discussed her major observations on the web and mobile apps in China and why they have evolved in a different way from their US counterparts. Last but not least, she also shared what she has learned from Allen Zhang, the founder of Wechat in product management.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Chenyu Zheng (@cheyuz , LinkedIn), former product marketing manager of Uber and freelance writer.
    • How did you start your career? [1:46]
    • In your career journey, what are the interesting career lessons learnt? [4:37]
    • Since your experience after Uber and Whisper, what have you been up to these days? [5:13]
  • What makes Digital Experience in China unique? [6:10]
    • References: “China Innovation: 10 mobile apps in China to know”, “18 never revealed product insights from the man behind China’s Wechat” and “Beyond the copycats: 5 things I learned about China Internet”
    • What are the five observations on Chinese Internet Sector? [6:10]
    • How does working & living in China differ from the US? [14:15]
    • You have written an article about the 10 mobile apps in China that many should know, can you talk about some of them? [15:40]
    • Everyone knows about Wechat as the most important social app in China and very little is know about the creator, Allen Zhang from Tencent, what are the key product insights you have learned from him in thinking about products in China. [20:44]
    • In China, the trend for digital apps are moving towards a holistic way to create a super app while in the US, we see more apps with single set of distinct features such as Google and Facebook, do you see that the thinking in China digital apps shift in the US direction at some point? [26:05]

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bernardleong & weibo) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk on Indiegogo (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Also check out Ideal Workspace’s new standing desk, Altizen and sign up for their mailing list. Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.