[TulliusCicero]

I've found Germany is even more backwards for consumer-facing tech. I frequently have to pay with cash at businesses here, and of course make sure to always have a coin on you for the shopping cart at the grocery store! Additionally, websites for German institutions are markedly behind what I was used to in the states (e.g. elementary schools), they all still rely heavily on phone calls and letters, and I still had people giving me photos burned on CD's, or emailing them to me one photo at a time. Software/internet UX in general just seems very behind, too.

That's not to say that Germany is less advanced than the US as a whole, but when it comes to consumer-facing software stuff, it feels substantially behind.

[distances]

Note that a big reason for cash use in Germany is privacy (no trace of your purchases) and thriftiness (stores avoiding card payment fees).

But yes, Germany is quite slow to adopt new technology.

[TulliusCicero]

> Note that a big reason for cash use in Germany is privacy (no trace of your purchases)

Well, no. That explains why consumers might pay with cash, but not why businesses would only take cash.

> thriftiness (stores avoiding card payment fees).

This one, yeah makes sense. Although it has less explanatory power for EC cards than credit cards imo. Aren't EC card payment fees quite low?

Plus IIRC studies show people being more willing to spend more with 'plastic' than cash, so it may actually be a false savings for the business.

And it's not like Germany is collectively taking some principled position against digital payments, they're just slower on the adoption curve; it IS still happening. To me this points more to the general conservatism on digital things that you can see elsewhere as well (e.g. uptake of digital books, downloaded vs physical video games, downloaded/streamed music, etc.) rather than something specific to payments themselves.