Booty call in China, made easy
Another learning experience at SXSW: if you're looking for mobile innovation, look East
By Andrew LeonardTopics: China, mobile gaming, SXSW, sxswi, South by Southwest, wechat, SXSW News, Technology News
At a panel on mobile gaming in China, the panelists were asked near the end of the session their suggestions for the most popular non-game apps. Much mention was made of WeChat, a superpowered chat platform that apparently can do everything except slice bread.
Henry Fong, the exceedingly well-informed CEO of Yodo1, a leading developer and distributor of mobile games in China, held up his phone and shook it.
“One thing you should know is that WeChat has a booty call function,” said Fong. “If you shake your phone, everyone within five hundred meters of you who also shakes their phone will show up on your phone.”
Fong also mentioned that by the end of this year there will be about 500 million smartphones in active use in China. That’s a lot of booty-calling.
Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21. More Andrew Leonard.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Danny Boyle: "Trainspotting" sequel is back on
-
The man with the 3-D-printed gun
-
Nick Cave instructs SXSW in phone etiquette
-
I have seen the future of retail and it looks like an Oreo
-
The politics of Austin's rickshaws
-
Grumpy Cat reigns supreme
-
"How 3D printing changed my life"
-
Making sense out of SXSW chaos
-
How to remember Aaron Swartz
-
Embracing South by Southwest's shameless hucksterism
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
"Jodorowsky's Dune": The sci-fi classic that never was
Andrew O'Hehir
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
-
My open relationship went awry
David Farley
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Jonathan Bernstein
-
Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Scott Timberg
-
Will you marry me -- once you're done peeing?
Tracy Clark-Flory
-
GOP attorney general candidate tried to force women to report miscarriages to police
Katie Mcdonough
-
Penn Jillette's secrets of "Celebrity Apprentice": Donald Trump is a whackjob!
Penn Jillette
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

943 points944 points945 points | 198 comments

43 points44 points45 points | 8 comments

34 points35 points36 points | 16 comments
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
-
Report: one in four online teens now use Twitter -
Considerations for rolling out an NoSQL strategy in the enterprise -
Nvidia’s new Tegra superchip boasts 150 Mbps speeds, but it’s not LTE-Advanced -
Brrr: The chilly conditions that quantum computers need to run -
Brow.si wants to make mobile websites behave like native apps


What The Hell Is Going On With The Skittles Facebook Page?
Yahoo Used To Have An 'Internet Life' Magazine And It Was Amazing
The New Star Trek Movie Was On YouTube For More Than 24 Hours
What It Looks Like To Get Eaten By A Grizzly Bear
The Strange World Of High School Confession Pages
Comments
2 Comments