Thanks to the Great Firewall of China, an intricate network of filters and website-blockers, China has had to develop its own ecosystem of smartphone apps. China's insistence on government access to and control of apps has largely kept Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google off Chinese smartphones, leading to an entire industry of copycat apps that really only work in China. But now, say Johan Kessel and Paul Mazur at The New York Times, China "has become a guide to the future." - theweek.com