6 ms·

I think the main issue might be language. For companies, the english block is a huge benefit. If I launch a company in the UK, I have customers in Canada, India

I think the main issue might be language. For companies, the english block is a huge benefit. If I launch a company in the UK, I have customers in Canada, India, United States, Australia, and New Zealand right of the back. I can then focus on refining the product and get into the mindset of making the product better for different international audiences. Secondly, the english block tends to have a similar legal and regulatory mindset in dealing with companies. The Chinese system seems opaque and hard to understand for outsiders and for good reason. There is a lot of government influence and thinking that shapes Chinese products which doesn't appear elsewhere. That is a huge disadvantage. When you consider all the of the other issues a young company face, having a huge multi-national singular language and somewhat similar regulatory framework is helpful in getting started.

k__ 9y ago
Language is a big point. Just look at the EU. We have a much bigger population than the US, but most speak their own language, which makes grow from lets say Germany to France or Spain a bigger issue than from the US to Canada.
- NicoJuicy 9y ago
  Yet, here we are, speaking English
  - iamthirsty 9y ago
    On a predominately English forum, that is based out of the U.S.
    - JBlue42 9y ago
      What would an EU hacker news look like? Would lingua franca would they use?
      - iamthirsty 9y ago
        In Europe, probably English. [1] Anywhere else: Arabic (Mid East/Africa), Chinese (Asia), Spanish (South America). [1]: https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21721861-despite-jean-claude-junckers-joke-anglophones-should-rest-easy-britain-leaving-eu-its https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21721861-despite-jean-...
        girzel 9y ago
        Not true for Asia. Perhaps some smaller South-East Asian countries have seen the writing on the wall and started learning Chinese, but for the most part the defining characteristic of Asian countries is that they each pretend they are the only Asian country.
        seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        English gets you pretty far outside of china. If there is one language you need to know as a tourist, English is it.
        JBlue42 9y ago
        Yes, exactly.
        dasil003 9y ago
        Only half of South America speaks Spanish.
        baud147258 9y ago
        What does the other half speaks? Brasilian/Portuguese or something else?
        abrowne 9y ago
        Yes, Portuguese. Population of South America: 421M¹ Population of Brazil: 208M² 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil
- adventured 9y ago
  It's also dramatically easier to gain huge scale in the US market first, then lean on that scale to take over smaller foreign markets one by one, even if it's expensive to do so (setting up a david v goliath scenario in the smaller market). Whereas the reverse scenario is perhaps 10x or 100x more difficult. How does a social network that wants to start in eg Portugal, defeat Facebook? That's extremely difficult on a local basis, and that much more difficult if you then want to try to grow up and out of Portugal and take over other Facebook markets. Facebook by contrast, by the time they fully dominated just the US market, had a billion dollars per year (doubling annually) in cashflow to throw at expansion globally. If you flip that down to a smaller market, and say you start in Estonia and capture that market (while somehow fending off Facebook), how much cashflow do you have per year to spend on trying to take the next market? How well protected is your home base from Facebook taking it from you in the meantime, and so on. The US/Canada + english starting advantage is extreme.
- lazyant 9y ago
  > We have a much bigger population than the US 1.5x bigger
whooshee 9y ago
Yeah, Language is a point, Unlikely will researchers from other countries publish their papers in Chinese. it create barriers from both sides, both foreign products go into Chinese market or the other way around. However, if China can successfully innovate some great product/models, in consumer sector, it's not a big problem, look at Japan's past successes.
cptskippy 9y ago
> right of the back I looked it up just to make sure I wasn't insane, it's "right off the bat" and it's a baseball idiom.
- electic 9y ago
  Right you are...
  - thewhitetulip 9y ago
    spoken like yoda, you have...
    - thaumasiotes 9y ago
      Topic fronting is a common feature of languages. It's much rarer in English than in many others, but still not rare. "Right you are" is an extremely common fixed expression.
      - thewhitetulip 9y ago
        I really didn't know that. Thank you.

k__ 9y ago

Language is a big point. Just look at the EU. We have a much bigger population than the US, but most speak their own language, which makes grow from lets say Germany to France or Spain a bigger issue than from the US to Canada.

NicoJuicy 9y ago
Yet, here we are, speaking English
- iamthirsty 9y ago
  On a predominately English forum, that is based out of the U.S.
  - JBlue42 9y ago
    What would an EU hacker news look like? Would lingua franca would they use?
    - iamthirsty 9y ago
      In Europe, probably English. [1] Anywhere else: Arabic (Mid East/Africa), Chinese (Asia), Spanish (South America). [1]: https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21721861-despite-jean-claude-junckers-joke-anglophones-should-rest-easy-britain-leaving-eu-its https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21721861-despite-jean-...
      - girzel 9y ago
        Not true for Asia. Perhaps some smaller South-East Asian countries have seen the writing on the wall and started learning Chinese, but for the most part the defining characteristic of Asian countries is that they each pretend they are the only Asian country.
        seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        English gets you pretty far outside of china. If there is one language you need to know as a tourist, English is it.
      - JBlue42 9y ago
        Yes, exactly.
      - dasil003 9y ago
        Only half of South America speaks Spanish.
        baud147258 9y ago
        What does the other half speaks? Brasilian/Portuguese or something else?
        abrowne 9y ago
        Yes, Portuguese. Population of South America: 421M¹ Population of Brazil: 208M² 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil
adventured 9y ago
It's also dramatically easier to gain huge scale in the US market first, then lean on that scale to take over smaller foreign markets one by one, even if it's expensive to do so (setting up a david v goliath scenario in the smaller market). Whereas the reverse scenario is perhaps 10x or 100x more difficult. How does a social network that wants to start in eg Portugal, defeat Facebook? That's extremely difficult on a local basis, and that much more difficult if you then want to try to grow up and out of Portugal and take over other Facebook markets. Facebook by contrast, by the time they fully dominated just the US market, had a billion dollars per year (doubling annually) in cashflow to throw at expansion globally. If you flip that down to a smaller market, and say you start in Estonia and capture that market (while somehow fending off Facebook), how much cashflow do you have per year to spend on trying to take the next market? How well protected is your home base from Facebook taking it from you in the meantime, and so on. The US/Canada + english starting advantage is extreme.
lazyant 9y ago
> We have a much bigger population than the US 1.5x bigger

whooshee 9y ago

Yeah, Language is a point, Unlikely will researchers from other countries publish their papers in Chinese. it create barriers from both sides, both foreign products go into Chinese market or the other way around. However, if China can successfully innovate some great product/models, in consumer sector, it's not a big problem, look at Japan's past successes.

cptskippy 9y ago

> right of the back I looked it up just to make sure I wasn't insane, it's "right off the bat" and it's a baseball idiom.

electic 9y ago
Right you are...
- thewhitetulip 9y ago
  spoken like yoda, you have...
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    Topic fronting is a common feature of languages. It's much rarer in English than in many others, but still not rare. "Right you are" is an extremely common fixed expression.
    - thewhitetulip 9y ago
      I really didn't know that. Thank you.