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VC from Asia is skyrocketing

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Re: VC from Asia is skyrocketing

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why hasn't US achieved the level of digital payment smoothness that China has been able to? Because it already achieved that "level of digital payment smoothness" with credit cards? > I think we need to be careful about attributing all of the China's success and splurge of VC funding to IP theft, hostile domestic market for foreign players, etc. China is succeeding because it really wants to. > It's important to re…

The way credit cards work in the U.S. is incredibly behind how they work in every other developed nation. I studied abroad in New Zealand in 2004. Even back then, everything was chip-and-pin, with computerized machines at every merchant to take orders. I never had to hand my NZ bank card to a merchant, just insert it into an EFTPOS reader and enter my PIN. My American credit card needed a swipe, signature, and handov…

I haven't handed my card to a merchant in the states since I got back a year and a half ago. UnionPay card use was always annoying in China because in addition to your PIN, you would need to sign as well, it was like the worst of all worlds. I'm not really into QR either (tap via RF is the right solution), but it works better than what they had before.

Re: VC from Asia is skyrocketing

#73
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why hasn't US achieved the level of digital payment smoothness that China has been able to? This isn't unusual. Because of legacy issues, latecomers often enjoy superior infrastructure. For example, US is still on 110V despite all the disadvantages.

> For example, US is still on 110V despite all the disadvantages. Could go into that? IIRC, 110V is less efficient but it's also less dangerous, so maybe it's more of a trade-off. But your point stands. I've read that the reason Estonia's government infrastructure is so much more advanced than the US's is because they had visionary leaders and started from scratch in the 90s. The US has the weight of decades of good-…

Ya, I miss the satisfying "pop" I get when plugging in to outlets in China without a ground pin.

Re: VC from Asia is skyrocketing

#74
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the EB-5 visa?

Not going to work for most founders. The point is that VC money chases where founders and their talent are, which is why the SF Bay Area has had such as stronghold for such a long time. As the US makes it more difficult for founders and talent to come to the US, VCs will focus on areas where those founders actually are. And if your option is - stay in your home country and take local money, or try to move to the US,…

Now try getting a visa as a founder in China or India.

Re: VC from Asia is skyrocketing

#75
post #46

Everyone is ignoring the fact that China is a massive closed market. Most western services do not care about China. China culture is different and it doesn't seem that the "world" is willing to translate and adapt its services to it. This means a huge opportunity for local ventures.

I'd argue China is actually one of the easiest markets to adapt for, given its size. We're talking 1.3 billion people with the same national language, 92% of which share the same ethnicity (Han). Most Chinese cities are quite consistent in terms of culture and regulations. It's a very homogeneous country with a large middle class

Indian or South-East Asia markets are much more difficult to adapt for. You've got a smaller population with less buying power divided up into more than dozens of major languages, cultures, ethnicities, laws, etc.

Protectionism is the real barrier in China, not Western ignorance.

This is what I experienced at a Chinese startup, where a large majority of the strategy/ops efforts were dedicated to localizing products for SEA, compared to the domestic market.

Re: VC from Asia is skyrocketing

#76
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may sound naive, but how does IP Theft even work? I've worked as a software engineer for over 12 years at over half a dozen companies, with codebases numbering in the millions of lines of code and I have yet to see any software or code I could imagine anyone would want to steal. And if you really needed some code, I'm sure it's available somewhere as open source. And wouldn't the open source code be much more pr…

IP that's worth stealing is not limited to one specific implementation, it's about using someone else's idea . (So "theft" is a misnomer, it's really about imitation.) For example, if you buy a competitor's product to take it apart, replicate its components and assemble lots of knock-offs, you have some validation that the product is going to work, without having to do any costly planning and design yourself. All of…

It is utterly ridiculous that to take an =idea= is considered theft. In that case, pretty much every American corporation can be accused of theft. Google: Stolen from alta vista, Microsoft: Stolen from CP/M, Apple: Stolen from Xerox, The american space program: stolen from the Nazis! If that's the basis for accusing China of stealing IP, it's a pretty weak argument.

Re: VC from Asia is skyrocketing

#79
post #6

I got a random idea: what if sites like HN, Reddit, RSS readers, etc. would have netflix-like subscription for articles? I don't care about WSJ or other paywall publishers. Especially not enough to subscribe. I however do care about occasional story that ends on HN.

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