Live data from Hacker News

Africa is the last wave of outsroucing

bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 28 posts

Re: Africa is the last wave of outsroucing

#4
post #3

Race to the bottom.

>>Race to the bottom.

Probably, but you seem to imply that is bad?!

What happens when all the world's areas of dirt poor people has been "used up" by outsourcing, so they lack dirt poor people? [Edit: That is, what will happen after the race to the bottom?]

I really don't have an idea about the answer. But the world will be better, with much fewer poor people.

Re: Africa is the last wave of outsroucing

#7
post #6

What about outsourcing to Russia when it becomes a reasonable place for foreign firms to do business? It seems like that wave is yet to come.

Russia is problematic in that its government is notoriously corrupt and controlled by the mob and Russian business interests, but its workers are not poor (and therefore cheap) enough for foreign investors to be able to overlook Russia's political problems.

Re: Africa is the last wave of outsroucing

#9
post #7
post #6

What about outsourcing to Russia when it becomes a reasonable place for foreign firms to do business? It seems like that wave is yet to come.

Russia is problematic in that its government is notoriously corrupt and controlled by the mob and Russian business interests, but its workers are not poor (and therefore cheap) enough for foreign investors to be able to overlook Russia's political problems.

Even for higher-level jobs like engineering or software engineering? I don't imagine call centers popping up in Russia, more like contract engineering firms that do work for American companies. Or is that possible and happening already in the current climate?

Edit/PS: The political problems are exactly why I think the wave is yet to come.

Re: Africa is the last wave of outsroucing

#10
post #5

Kenya has an advantage over most other cheap countries for call center outsourcing, and it's the accent. The kenyan accent is easy to understand and more crisp, compared to accents like Indian, Chinese or West African. See sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U1h51HiqTg

I don't know if I agree with this completely. I lived in Nairobi in the summer of 2004 and had a real difficult time understanding people for the first couple of weeks.

However, the people generally do speak quite slowly with melodic voices and emphasized pronunciation.

Post reply on HN