Premium members have received an unabridged version of this article earlier with more product pictures and content (including products that are suitab

Gamification of Chinese consumer tech (Abridged version)

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2021-06-14 14:30:09

Premium members have received an unabridged version of this article earlier with more product pictures and content (including products that are suitable for gamification and types of gamification traits). Premium members also have access to this month’s Meituan Product Walkthrough in the Chinese Characteristics’ Circle community. 

Going forward, I intend to post more extensively on Circle and via paid posts, esp since there’s interest in my personal stock portfolio and it’s a good topic to discuss among like-minded folks.

A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play. - Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse

Last October, a feline obsession was stalking the Chinese masses. Every time I glanced around in restaurants or on the underground, someone was playing with a digital, and frankly, obese cat (OK, stocky). In the fragmented off-hours, people fed the cat, amassed items for it, visited their friends' cats and lavished attention on their virtual companion. This was Taobao's Singles Day cat game, and in exchange for spending time in this virtual world, people received real-life coupons in return. People were into the cats, too; one virtual toxoplasmosis carrier ended up getting a billboard for his digital pet.1

This game wasn't an exception — looking around, every Chinese super-app has a mini-game or two tucked away in its offering. Taking a step back, gamification features like player status ranking and luck-of-the-draw mechanisms pervades the tech user experience. To engage with the Chinese metaverse is to play endless games. So why does Chinese tech love to imbue their offerings with games?

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