Shu Shengxiang (www.jiaodong.net):
The Chaoyang Masses app has been available since last August, but not many people have downloaded it, and users are reportedly not satisfied with the experience of using it. It became widespread only after police in Chaoyang District began to promote it beginning this February. Many people view it as a means to facilitate e-administration, but in fact, it is largely a commercial act.
The purpose of this app is to facilitate online tip-offs. However, this function alone is unable to boost the app, and ultimately, it also needs to provide news and information. The paradox is that if the public want to read local public security news and information, they only need to pay attention to the public WeChat account of the local police or other informative accounts. They don’t need to download the Chaoyang Masses app. Even the online tip-off function is not unique; some public Weibo and WeChat accounts already offer this. The app has no substantial selling point.
Although the Chaoyang masses are said to be “the fifth largest intelligence agency,” these people should be further classified. Most are ordinary people who don’t have much access to important information. Even the experienced volunteers who are really interested in reporting suspicious clues can report only the criminal incidents they witness on the streets or in their neighborhoods. Those who tipped off the police about movie stars using drugs and paying for sex are obviously not ordinary members of the public. They either have received professional training or are police informers. Some of them are most likely pimps, drug addicts or gangsters who want to atone for their crimes by providing the police with information.
It’s important to acknowledge that most of the information provided by ordinary people is useless. If the police treated every piece of reported information equally carefully, there would be no time left for them to deal with other issues. In actual fact, the police lack not information sources but key informers.
The Chaoyang Masses app depends on the public’s curiosity for useful information. But for users, the most important thing about an app is its usefulness. It’s interesting to peruse the app once in a while, but it’s not attractive enough for me to use it every day.