The following paragraph really says it all:<p><i>Snow focuses on Asian consumers. Like Snapchat, it offers users an array of filters that can add dog ears, glowing eyes and bulbous foreheads to selfies. But Snow also lets users add bottles of soju, the Korean liquor, or images of Korean pop stars. Another filter adds a rain of fried chicken, a favorite South Korean nosh. For Japan there are sumo wrestler and sushi filters.</i><p>If you want to win a foreign market, you have to ensure that you meet their needs. This is just Business 101. Any company that thinks that it can simply take a US/Western oriented product, add some language translations, and roll it out in other continents, is going to be massively vulnerable to local competitors that are willing to customize their features to tailor local preferences.
Anyone have insight as to why Snapchat is blocked in China but Snow isn't? Is Snow just currently under the radar and will likely suffer the same fate?
"Our competitive advantage is Chinese regulations blocking a social network and some domestic market filters" - One can change overnight and two can be pretty easily matched by a deep pocketed competitor who wants to enter your market. I could see these places being ghost towns in 2 or 3 years.
><i>“With the rise of China and China’s infatuation with Korean culture, it’s breathed new life into Korean start-ups and founders, Mr. Chae said. “This is a market that happens to be a lot bigger than the U.S., that seems to be more welcoming for Korean technology and culture than the Western world ever was.”</i><p>This paragraph is telling much than the rest of the article. Working in Japan, I see a similar trend. Except for those already well implanted, companies are not interested in the western world anymore. Not only it's hard, but it's not growing as fast as Asia.<p>Hiring teams that can understand the target market and culture is also much simpler, and marketing channels are simpler to understand.
I just downloaded snow. While snapchat might have a hard to figure out interface, snow feels down right broken.<p>After going to the menu to add Facebook friends, a list of people show up with a little "added" icon. There is no confirm button, only back. So I click back and my friend list is still empty.<p>2/3 the friend finder will not return results and many buttons take upwards of 40 seconds to think about things.