Catch Up with China: Exploring How Amap Has Evolved Into A Rising Super-app

Tuesday - November 28 2023, 08:29 UTC - 12 months ago

This article explores how the popular Chinese map app, Amap, is evolving in to a rising super-app due to its use in the newly popular game, cat-and-mouse. This article also takes a look at the recent news regarding China that followed Biden and Xi's meeting. It is concluded that Amap will not become a super-app despite its newfound success in the gaming world.

Thanksgiving is almost here. This year, when you get together with your family, may I suggest a fun little game that reinvents hide-and-seek for the digital age? .

In a story yesterday, I wrote about how the game works and how it uses Amap, the Chinese map app owned by Alibaba. If you want to know more (and figure out if I won!), read my story here. Despite not being a sporty person, I did really enjoy the two cat-and-mouse games I participated in. The way they blend together digital experiences and real-life interactions felt natural and refreshing.

They also changed how I view map apps. Even though I’ve had Google Maps and Apple Maps on my phone forever, I never thought of them as anything more than trip-planning tools; I certainly never thought of them as gaming apps or ways to bring people together IRL. I’m not alone. Before one of the games started, the organizer was explaining the rules and the technical set-up, which requires people to join a group on Amap to share locations.

"There are groups in Amap now?" one participant asked.

"Every app has a group function nowadays," another answered. Amap, for example, is one of the most widely used map and navigation apps in China today. But when I open it on my phone, I can see over 30 functions that you wouldn’t find on Western-equivalent apps.

Some of them still feel integral to the map experience, like recording when you last filled your car with gas, calling for roadside assistance, or comparing the prices of ride-hailing services. Others are pretty far removed: the app lets me check the purchase price of cars and contact a dealership, set up exercise goals and record my progress, and even—to my surprise—check out real estate listings. Just last week, Amap quietly added a new feature to its portfolio: you can hire a courier to do chores, like delivering a gift to the other side of the city.

Even though Amap had nothing to do with developing the cat-and-mouse game, it has tried to develop games in the past. (They didn’t catch on.) And now the company is riding the wave of cat-and-mouse popularity by adding new features to make the map more convenient for organizing a game; it also allows users to browse through the games being organized around the country every week.

All this said, viral trends come and go. Even though I’ve enjoyed the games I played, I’m sure the popularity of cat-and-mouse will wind down after a while. I mean, how many people are still playing Pokémon Go? But the trend does serve as a good example of how a map app can actually be useful for something completely different from its initial purpose.

Is that enough for Amap to really become the next super-app? I don’t think so. I’ll still prefer to get my apartment listings and step counts somewhere else—sorry.

Catch up with China .

1. China says it will step up its efforts to stop fentanyl chemicals from flowing to overseas labs. (Washington Post $)2. Following the Biden-Xi meeting last week, Chinese state media has started taking a much friendlier tone toward the US, which has rarely happened in the last few years. (Associated Press) .

3. Applied Materials, the largest US semiconductor equipments manufacturer, announced it will invest $2.7 billion into China in the next few years. (Reuters) .

4. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his US counterpart Tony Blinken in Shanghai, their first face-to-face encounter since the beginning of the Biden administration. (People's Daily) .