I’ve been wondering: in the age of AI, how should we deal with the closed-off and fragmented nature of different software ecosystems?
For example, the genuine Web ecosystem versus the Chinese software market, where each player rules its own domain and keeps its ecosystem closed.
Perhaps for historical and other reasons, software companies abroad also compete and copy one another, but at least their ecosystems are relatively open. Whether it’s APIs or the Web, they need to follow relatively open protocols and formats.
But here in China, the Web was suppressed early on, and each company built its own closed ecosystem. In the end, we wound up with a patchwork of isolated fiefdoms that don’t communicate with one another.
Even WeChat and Alipay, which are aimed at ordinary users, are the same.
On the one hand, this has led to intense, cutthroat competition. Every product has to build its own complete set of features, and even imitate competitors within its own app. For example, even Meituan and Alipay are getting into livestreaming.
On the other hand, this problem has become even more obvious in the age of AI.
If you build an AI tool, it’s basically crippled outside the system you’ve set up yourself. You can ask it to post on Twitter or visit a webpage without much trouble. But ask it to interact with WeChat or Alipay, and it can barely access anything.
I feel like there’s no solution to this problem.
Unless, as in history, another Qin Shi Huang comes along to unify the six kingdoms, with one company introducing a standard and forcefully bringing everything under one roof.
I never imagined the influence of history and culture could run so deep, lasting for thousands of years.
The system of checks and balances that emerged from the West’s seafaring civilization seems to have shaped the landscape of today’s software ecosystems, too.
For example, the genuine Web ecosystem versus the Chinese software market, where each player rules its own domain and keeps its ecosystem closed.
Perhaps for historical and other reasons, software companies abroad also compete and copy one another, but at least their ecosystems are relatively open. Whether it’s APIs or the Web, they need to follow relatively open protocols and formats.
But here in China, the Web was suppressed early on, and each company built its own closed ecosystem. In the end, we wound up with a patchwork of isolated fiefdoms that don’t communicate with one another.
Even WeChat and Alipay, which are aimed at ordinary users, are the same.
On the one hand, this has led to intense, cutthroat competition. Every product has to build its own complete set of features, and even imitate competitors within its own app. For example, even Meituan and Alipay are getting into livestreaming.
On the other hand, this problem has become even more obvious in the age of AI.
If you build an AI tool, it’s basically crippled outside the system you’ve set up yourself. You can ask it to post on Twitter or visit a webpage without much trouble. But ask it to interact with WeChat or Alipay, and it can barely access anything.
I feel like there’s no solution to this problem.
Unless, as in history, another Qin Shi Huang comes along to unify the six kingdoms, with one company introducing a standard and forcefully bringing everything under one roof.
I never imagined the influence of history and culture could run so deep, lasting for thousands of years.
The system of checks and balances that emerged from the West’s seafaring civilization seems to have shaped the landscape of today’s software ecosystems, too.
