When it comes to cracking the Asian market — and
particularly China — numerous American tech companies have tried and
failed or never got their foot in the door in the first place. Now that
same dynamic may befall fast-growing American apps.
Snapchat, a social media app that has become popular for letting people send short videos and images that disappear quickly, is facing a clone in Asia
that has been downloaded 30 million times since last September, writes
Paul Mozur. Made by the South Korean internet company Naver, the clone,
called Snow, is like Snapchat in many ways, with features including
ephemeral messages and videos and various camera filters.
Snow is different from Snapchat in one major respect. Unlike Snapchat, which is blocked in China, Snow is available there.
Snow’s
ascendancy in Asia illustrates the hurdles facing Snapchat, which has
been focused on more general growth worldwide and not specifically on
any single continent. By the time Snapchat gets around to more closely
targeting local audiences in South Korea, Japan, China and elsewhere in
Asia, it may find the market somewhat sewn up by a company that largely
copied what it does.
Source: New York Times
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