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>Often web developers see adding a “sign in with Facebook” or “sign in with Google” button as a kind of optional nice-to-have, which comes only after building their own account system. If you’re reading this because you’re starting a new website from scratch, I argue that “Sign in with …” should be the only option you offer.

unless you have potential clients in China.

4 comments

I hate and never use "Sign in with ..." as I don't like my identities to be closely tied together like that. I avoid giving Google and Facebook any information I can't avoid/don't want them to have.

I did find that an odd comment. I understand the assumption is that you will eventually roll your own (perhaps?) but to imagine requiring a user to be part of those services to use your own service, especially of your service has nothing to do with those, is very strange. Just a few examples of how that could become a pain for our pretend user Greg:

a) The obvious, Greg simply does not want a Google/Facebook/etc account.

b) Greg is from a region that does not have strong Google/Facebook/etc uptake and does not have one.

c) Greg is from a region that actually disallows those services, making your service blocked entirely.

d) Greg does not want to link his 3rd party account to your service.

Lastly if you are targeting enterprise clients: Greg is signing up to your service for a company he works for, not for himself, and there is of course no "Company Facebook Account". If his company uses Google Mail then he is in luck, but if not then there is a whole new account management process to go through. Someone will inevitably leave the company, lose the credentials, forget they ever had an account in the first place or remember they had an account but forget the new 3rd party services password instead.

Not to mention, if you are running a company, relying on a third party for such an important part of the puzzle is putting an enormous amount of trust into that third party. I know there are lots of those trust connections to take into account in any business, but if I am in the business of writing software it seems odd for me to not have the confidence and ability to manage an in house accounts system.

Personally, that drives me to a competitor, especially if the site offers absolutely nothing I'd ever want to integrate -- or have someone else integrate -- into my real-name persona.

Anyone know if there is a good commonly used Chinese OAuth provider? Or Japanese and Korean for that matter?

I found this related Quora question: https://www.quora.com/Is-there-an-equivalent-of-Facebook-Con...

Of those mentioned in the answers, I think QQ would be your best bet. I have never seen anyone use Renren, but everyone seems to have a QQ number.

Another of those "everyone has it" apps is WeChat, which also provides OAuth: http://open.wechat.com/cgi-bin/newreadtemplate?t=overseas_op...

Good links, thanks. At WWDC Apple was saying that Chinese, Japanese & Korean localisations for iOS Apps are often overlooked, and their data shows they should be the first ones to be added after English, even before localising for the more traditional languages.

I was looking into getting my app translated, but haven't even thought about OAuth providers.

You would not use QQ these days, it would be Wechat instead which pretty much everyone online in China has. QQ died around 2013

I wouldn't say that QQ is dead, I have definitely seen people use it on their laptops in class at uni. A number of classes also used QQ groups for announcements, Q&A, etc.

I agree that WeChat is more popular, though. Those who have both my QQ and WeChat contacts overwhelmingly go though WeChat.