There are other apps. And you can still buy tickets from counter in cinema use Cash or WeChat or Alipay. People use it more often because of its convenience. But you can live without it. The main problem is that you will find it difficult to live without its convenience.

And how long, if not already - likely once their people are acclimatized to the idea of 'social rating' system - before they start subtly or aggressively warning people, swaying their behaviour, of potential for their rating to go down if associating with X who isn't using apps.

A digitized version of Nazi Germany with mass censorship capabilities really is terrifying.

I was curious about what happens to people who can't get WeChat accounts. Perhaps due to committing crimes (in the way that sex offenders may be banned from using social media) or maybe they offended WeChat in some way (in the way that people lose their Google accounts if Google so decides).

Perhaps you could even be kicked off WeChat for having a social rating that was too low.

they already have the little red book-esque app that solidifies Xi as their permanent leader.

now I can't recall if that was a stand alone app or within the wechat ecosystem.

Companies spend money on advertising because it works.

Edit: Realized after you asked about credit score. A credit score is quite different than what China's rating system is all about from my understanding. Being dependable on repaying money or paying money you've promised to pay is a very specific rating that aligns with a person's accountability and/or ability to predict and manage their situation.

Not that is makes much difference, but the Stasi were DDR socialist East Germany.

There is a TV series based on Ian Kershaw's work on Nazi Germany [1]. One Gestapo office had not been able to destroy their records and it was found that most arrests of people were done as a result of them being denounced by their neighbours not by any actions of Gestapo personnel.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nazis:_A_Warning_from_Hist...

I’m not surprised. Many totalitarian regimes set up systems where neighbors can report on “counterrevolutionary” activities in which an abusive system “gets abused” and people use it for personal revenge among other things.

I mean wechat is useful for talking to Airbnb hosts, but so long as you don’t have just 100s you can still pay people with cash

Also visa renewals? What is that in reference to?