Why is it difficult for domestic apps to dominate overseas markets?

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China is the most populous country in the world. Although its 1.4 billion population makes its resources somewhat stretched, it also has huge resource advantages. Especially in the development of the Internet, it has a unique natural endowment. Therefore, this market has also spawned world Internet giants such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent.

However, with the in-depth development of China's Internet, the ceiling of network coverage and application penetration will gradually approach, and it has become an inevitable choice for a large number of Internet companies to go overseas. With the great development opportunities of mobile Internet, many APPs have begun to try to break through in the international market, and some have achieved good market results.

However, many domestic Internet companies that transplant their domestic versions of apps to overseas markets, or develop applications solely for foreign markets, often encounter the dilemma of being inexplicably "taken off the shelves" or not being recognized by the markets where they are located.

In the history of Internet development over the years, there has always been a very clear law: applications that are popular in the US, Europe and other markets will also become popular in China, but they must undergo localized transformation. Applications that cannot succeed in the US, Europe and other markets are often very popular in the Chinese market.

The reason for this strange phenomenon is largely because the customs and cultural characteristics of different countries are quite different, and there are great differences between Eastern and Western civilizations. The more successful an application is in China, the more difficult it is to achieve direct success when transplanted abroad.

For example, WeChat is undoubtedly the most successful APP in the domestic market. The social network established by it is even considered by many to be the first ticket to the mobile Internet. However, WeChat's development in overseas markets has not been smooth for many years, and its going-global strategy has almost failed.

To sum up, the main reasons why many domestic apps are difficult to succeed overseas are:

1. Chinese social culture has distinct oriental characteristics, and due to years of westernization, it is also different from other Confucian cultural areas. The experience of domestic operations is difficult to apply to overseas markets.

Generally speaking, China's social status is significantly different from that of many countries. In China, traditional culture is deeply rooted, and the social relationships between people are intricate, which directly affects the use of social applications. Even compared with East Asia and Southeast Asia, which belong to the same Chinese cultural circle, after decades of socialist construction and more than 30 years of reform and opening up, the social situation in the mainland also has distinct characteristics.

China uses the world's most widely used and oldest Chinese characters based on pictographic writing, which is very different from the alphabetic writing used in Western countries. Many unique applications based on Chinese characters are difficult to be accepted in Western countries. In this case, some domestic APP layout design and text arrangement need to be fundamentally changed, and even the entire APP design concept will be subversively changed, which is very difficult.

The Chinese market is particularly large, which directly creates the conditions for independently creating super apps. However, it also makes these Internet companies form path dependence. Once they take their existing capabilities to overseas markets, they will encounter difficulties in adapting to the local environment. Some methods that can be used in large markets are difficult to work in small markets. The Hong Kong and Taiwan markets are too small, the Japanese and Korean markets are special, and countries such as Indonesia and India have very different cultural characteristics from mainland China. Domestic apps face huge cultural challenges after going overseas.

2. China's family planning policy has created a unique population structure, which is a social feature not found in any other country. The unique social consumption needs of the one-child generation have nurtured China's unique Internet culture.

The 20 years of rapid development of China's Internet are the era when those born in the 1980s and 1990s have emerged as the main population of China. This group is indeed a generation with very unique social and historical characteristics.

Since China began to implement the family planning policy in the 1980s, the post-80s and post-90s are mainly single-child populations. Most families have only one child, which fundamentally affects China's future, but has become a unique driving force for the development of China's Internet. It is precisely because this generation lacks the love of brothers and sisters and is born with a sense of loneliness that Chinese social applications are in full swing, and have also created many special needs that are very Chinese and single-child.

It can be said that these successful Internet companies in China all have a strong 80s/90s imprint. These successful experiences may only be effective in China and have no common characteristics in any other country, which also makes most Chinese apps encounter embarrassment in overseas markets.

3. Most domestic apps rely on rogue promotion methods to gain market position, but it is difficult to follow suit in overseas markets. If you want to win under different competitive conditions, you need to adapt to weak marketing.

Apps that are popular in China often have a history of rogue development, such as forced bundling, private installation, and rigid recommendations using monopoly tools. These methods are difficult to use when transferred to countries with mature legal systems or regions with strict management, and have caused some domestic apps to be at a loss in marketing.

Of course, this does not mean that foreign APP promotion is not "rogue", but many domestic APPs no longer have the basis for rogue after going abroad, and can only watch those competitors with strong positions in these markets use rogue means to deal with them. Domestic Internet companies must adapt to the marketing challenges in weak markets. From this perspective, it is not surprising that those APPs that survive well abroad are from Internet companies that are not first-tier in China, because they face the same market environment at home and abroad, and are easier to adapt.

The development of the world's Internet is becoming more and more integrated, and there are more and more applications that transcend national boundaries. Many Internet applications in the world are about to enter the Chinese market. Chinese Internet companies must also gradually move towards overseas markets and create apps with global influence and higher popularity. This is an inevitable development path. However, this process must be gradual, from small markets to large markets, from individual application areas that are easy to break through to comprehensive Internet services, and requires unremitting exploration.