I know I'm venturing a bit off topic, but... From what I've seen, 5 years is about the amount of time for major changes in trends to take place. A lot of compa

I know I'm venturing a bit off topic, but... From what I've seen, 5 years is about the amount of time for major changes in trends to take place. A lot of companies can rise and fall in 5 years, which is the same amount of time it takes for a startup to come out of nowhere and then dominate the scene. We haven't really seen China and India explode yet. I would even dare to say that a lot of people on HN haven't taken a close look at Chinese websites. Rhygar's comment not only applies to Samsung, but a lot of other companies we haven't even heard of in other countries. There are Chinese travel websites (e.g. qunar and huochepiao), auction sites (taobao), search engines (baidu), social networks (renren), made by really smart engineers who understand their local markets and cost a fifth to a third of what US software engineers cost--and when those companies make boatloads of cash in their own country, guess where they will start pushing out to? I laughed when I went to Shanghai several years ago and saw all the urinals and toilets in the airport with the American Standard brand. Now, I see a lot of Toto (Japanese) branded toilets in American restaurants and public restrooms.