A new study from Georgia Tech’s School of History and Sociology emphasizes how an app's success or failure depends on more than just its technological capabilities, but also on the way it interacts with its surrounding environment.
The paper offers a new framework to examine the histories of tech companies, prompting a greater focus on the social contexts, cultural influences, and even random events that shape their trajectory.
“Lots of platforms have lots of technological similarities, but it's these differences that make a difference and are particularly valuable,” said Jack Linzhou Xing, a co-author on the paper and recent graduate of the School's Ph.D. in the History and Sociology of Technology and Science. He is now an An Wang Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University.
The Framework
Xing and co-author Jun Zhang, an associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong, published their study in the Chinese Journal of Communication. In it, the researchers examine WeChat, a Chinese “super app” with 1.38 billion monthly users according to Statista.
But its rise and ubiquitousness in China’s daily life were neither accidental nor predetermined, Xing said. Rather, it’s due to a combination of factors that can be used to better understand any app’s history.
Diversity
There is always an incredible variety of interacting components in an app's development, such as economic, political, social, technological, institutional, financial, or even a single person or groups of people, Xing said.
“Because of this diversity, you cannot explain a platform with just one single logic, like technological determinism," he said. "You need to keep an open mind.”
Contingencies (or Unintended Events and Consequences)
“Contingencies might make up 10% of all events, but they can change a lot of things,” Xing said. “They can be much, much more important than the other 90%.”
For example, WeChat gained 200 million users with a game that its developers made for fun to play amongst themselves. By releasing and promoting this unplanned game, WeChat doubled its user numbers at the time.
Processuality (or Step-by-Step Actions Over Time)
“Platform firms might have an ultimate goal, like creating an app to dominate markets. But in real life, they respond step-by-step to contingencies,” Xing said. “What they do might not align with their ultimate goal, but is more an improvisational move to deal with immediate situations or events.”
When competing company Alibaba saw WeChat’s success, it launched its own similar game, earning a huge increase in users as well.
Context
“Platforms and their components are deeply embedded in the social and political context of their society,” Xing said.
For example, China’s huge variety of dialects and system of written characters makes texting difficult for people who cannot write Chinese words with a latin alphabet. WeChat’s voice notes allowed them to overcome this communication barrier, providing a major reason for its adoption that would be less important in a place like the United States, where most people speak the same language and use the same alphabet.
Key Takeaways
A better understanding of the significance of environmental influences can help developers build more successful products, governments regulate global firms, and consumers maintain a critical eye in an era of technological determinism.
For Tech Developers and Firms
“Don’t trust your assumptions based on your previous successful cases, and deeply respect the social, political, and cultural contexts of the new market or sector you want to enter,” Xing said. “Reading a lot is not enough. You need to hire someone — or you yourself have the experience — to really know about the deeper and often overlooked context of what you're targeting.”
For Policymakers and Governments
Xing said, “Balance regulating the firms in your country, while also appreciating the situation they face globally, where markets operate in very different ways.”
For Consumers
"When we see all these dominating platforms overwhelming our lives, we need to remember that this is not a necessity and it’s not inevitable. If you want to change things, you can. Technology can succeed and can fail based on very so-called stupid reasons or reasons that we typically don't think of,” Xing said.
“Luck matters, and contingency matters, and we should not fall into technological determinism, especially when it is portrayed or promoted by the dominant firms. Lots of uncertainties are always there, and there are always open-ended opportunities and challenges with them.”
“Toward a Processual Approach to Digital Platforms’ Infrastructuralization: The Case of WeChat in China” was published in the Chinese Journal of Communication. Read the study at https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2025.2517254
