Popping Up a Level: Meta-Apps Are Becoming a Thing
August 24, 2022
A long time ago, I heard the word viewshed in a meeting in Crystal City. I liked it. Others did not. One interesting person chimed in and said, “Let’s pop up a level.” Then I heard “level up” as a way to rise above the fray or the mind numbing weirdness of many business meetings. More recently a person at a law enforcement conference use the phrase “meta-view.” The idea is that one needs to take a content object — say, a Facebook post — and think about the content in a broader way.
Each of these ideas suggest what a cranky Dr. Daphne Swartz called “getting lost in the weeds.” Dr. Swartz loved detail but she valued the ability to get untangled from weeds.
I read “AnyMind Adds TikTok Shop, Yahoo Japan Shopping to Shop Management Platform.” The write up explains that a software application “allows online sellers to manage shops on different ecommerce platforms from a single base.”
Yep, this is a meta-app, and I think these will play an important part in how people interact with the datasphere. The idea is simplification. Like WeChat, some users value convenience and having certain routine tasks pushed into the background. Online merchants want to sell and collect money. Fooling around with housekeeping chores is akin to cleaning toilets at summer camp. Wow, fun.
The article points out:
AnyMind launched AnyX in April with a goal of combining management, optimization, and tracking across the growing number of ecommerce channels in the region. It also offers services such as analytics, conversational commerce, digital marketing, and logistics.
Several observations:
Today’s online giants may find themselves reduced to an icon in a meta-app
Successful meta-apps may be similar to TikTok-style videos, and no amount of quasi-alleged monopolistic behavior can stop the train unless the quasi alleged monopolies buy the meta-app outfits
An integration with a China-linked outfit like TikTok makes clear that national boundaries and maybe common sense are less important than making life into a giant customized convenience store in Osaka.
Net net: Worth watching this viewshed, level up, and meta app idea.
Stephen E Arnold, August 24, 2022
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