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by numpad0
993 days ago
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It's not just we have alternatives for some services, the entire Internet looks like "our" thing from this side. Everything is either perfectly localized, or built and run by local entities, or dominated by local users. In rare cases that none of above are true, social graph of users are still completely closed off from the outside world. I mean, it's even the case offline. Have anyone seen or used the omnipresent NCR made ATM, with transparent green card slot? There are lots of Ingenico Lane/5000 lately, but that green plastic cover still isn't a thing here. I think there are very few regions that you could live without ever seeing one in life. We're isolate as that. |
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People who are tied to the English-speaking net are often totally unaware of how many areas are dominated by local companies even in markets that are linguistically much closer and more used to using English.
And that's not really a criticism - it's hard to keep up when you're not immersed in it.
I'm Norwegian but live in the UK, and I keep being surprised by Norwegian or Scandinavian online services I was unaware of when I go home to visit family, for example, despite following Norwegian news, and visiting twice a year. It's not that they're necessarily more advanced (though sometimes they are) or better, but just that often you find local companies better entrenched than you'd expect.