QUARTZ - June 25 - Tencent, the Chinese technology giant that operates messaging app WeChat, has shut down an anonymous chat function, called "drift bottle". On drift bottle, users could "throw" bottles containing either a text or voice message into a virtual ocean or "pick up" floating ones. The function allowed users to stay anonymous, but people could also exchange contact details through the bottles. Tencent announced in December that it would suspend drift bottle on both QQ Mail and WeChat, after it found that users had been spreading pornography or soliciting prostitution on the platform. In April, the company said it would officially shut down the chat programme on QQ Mail on June 24. It has not said whether drift bottle would be resumed on WeChat. For many of China's Internet users, particularly those born in the 1980s, drift bottle was a go-to-place for finding either friendship or romance online. With the rise of local dating apps and social networks such as Momo and Weibo, drift bottle is now largely an object of nostalgia for China's Internet users.
by Jane Li
See full article at Quartz
See all posts on Momo
| |
Comments