India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies • Hacker News Board

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#21

Post by hansstam » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 1:24 PM UTC

philsalesses wrote: post #19

chvid wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every expat in China I have met paid a few dollars a month for a VPN and had as much Facebook, Google, YouTube as the rest of us. Are you only referring to Great Firewall when you say that "life here is simply impossible"?

I have 4 (ExpressVPN, VyprVPN, StrongVPN, and a fourth I'll never tell anyone where it is). They do not reliably connect, are prone to attacks from the government and even when they do connect, you'll be throttled into oblivion. Before I discovered Shadowsocks (Chinese went to clouds house and made him remove it from github), my VPN would, within 3-5 minutes, be throttled to about 128k average speed. I would be elate…

You say you went to MIT and don't know how to set up your own VPN server?

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#22

Post by IIAOPSW » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 1:46 PM UTC

philsalesses wrote: post #2

As an American who up and moved to China on a whim and more recently started a tech company split between Boston and Shanghai, I can only greet this news with jubilation. Life here over the last two years has become simply impossible. Good luck to you China.

holy shit are we the same person?

hit me up at Windows some time. Or wherever.

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#23

Post by wildmusings » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 1:50 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #3

Free sounds good, but of course it isn't really "free", stuff is being built and the people who build it, and the people who makes the parts and so on, are all getting paid. You can't put a billion people online "for free". So who is paying? Obviously the people themselves, eventually. India would be wise to ensure the profits made by American companies are taxed in India. This is the mistake the EU made and why Goog…

That's the mistake that the EU made? Not taxing American companies enough?

Instead of focusing on confiscating wealth from the successful, how about creating a climate where Europeans can create similarly successful businesses?

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#24

Post by kchoudhu » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 1:54 PM UTC

hansstam wrote: post #21

philsalesses wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 4 (ExpressVPN, VyprVPN, StrongVPN, and a fourth I'll never tell anyone where it is). They do not reliably connect, are prone to attacks from the government and even when they do connect, you'll be throttled into oblivion. Before I discovered Shadowsocks (Chinese went to clouds house and made him remove it from github), my VPN would, within 3-5 minutes, be throttled to about 128k average speed. I would be elate…

You say you went to MIT and don't know how to set up your own VPN server?

Fairly certain the GFC can ferret out any VPN you can set up on your own.

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#25

Post by arsalanb » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 1:56 PM UTC

Meanwhile in Kashmir, which is an "integral" part of India (apparently) — http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/access-denied-kas...

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#26

Post by dharma1 » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 2:04 PM UTC

Me and 2 friends have spent the last 8 months building an Android app, just launched in India and are getting good traction. Anyone have recommendations for VC's/angels - either in the region or interested in it?

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#27

Post by philsalesses » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 2:10 PM UTC

hansstam wrote: post #21

philsalesses wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have 4 (ExpressVPN, VyprVPN, StrongVPN, and a fourth I'll never tell anyone where it is). They do not reliably connect, are prone to attacks from the government and even when they do connect, you'll be throttled into oblivion. Before I discovered Shadowsocks (Chinese went to clouds house and made him remove it from github), my VPN would, within 3-5 minutes, be throttled to about 128k average speed. I would be elate…

You say you went to MIT and don't know how to set up your own VPN server?

Aren't you snarky... Read carefully. I have a fourth. And that wouldn't fix it anyway. They detect it on the protocol level. They posison your DNS.

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#28

Post by noodles23 » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 2:19 PM UTC

As someone with a startup that operates in both India and China, I completely agree that India will be the next big thing.

Both are messed up in their own ways. The difference is that in India, things are generally getting better. There are exceptions but the trend is moving towards a better internet ecosystem.

China on the other hand is a case of how to F* things up. They modernized their tech backbone so quicky hundreds of millions of people have access to fast (20 mbps+) internet. From there the government has made it virtually impossible to have a global tech focussed startup in China.

Just an example- npm repos are by default blocked in China. Apparently the automatic version control ended up with a number sequence that corresponds in some bamboozled way with a black date that's censored. Government had a hissy fit and therefore NPM is blocked. You have to reconfigure to use Chinese locally hosted repos which is a security risk (Read: IOS malware in Chinese versions of software)

We also got stung with a government request for data on users. Since the law in China changes with every government official you meet, some of the shit they ask for is beyond rediculous. To be fair, it's also happened in India, but the frequency is decreasing.

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#29

Post by linuxkerneldev » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

arsalanb wrote: post #25

Meanwhile in Kashmir, which is an "integral" part of India (apparently) — http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/kashmir/access-denied-kas...

I was curious so I googled. The ban was lifted. The ban was put into place because people were broadcasting provocative and violent videos showing torture and cutting throats of cows (sacred to Hindus in neighbouring Indian states). Eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzSBk6n1olU

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation...

Re: India Replaces China as Next Big Frontier for U.S. Tech Companies

#30

Post by noodles23 » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 2:28 PM UTC

kchoudhu wrote: post #24

hansstam wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say you went to MIT and don't know how to set up your own VPN server?

Fairly certain the GFC can ferret out any VPN you can set up on your own.

Not exactly. If you use an standard VPN protocol right out of the box (read: OpenVPN), then yes it is automatically blocked. The OpenVPN SSL handshake is different to regular SSL.

There are certain ways you can disguise the traffic and the VPN companies that specialize in China do that- but the GFW is regularly updated so what works today probably won't work next month.

The other issue is that even if you do get a VPN working, they have a tendency to throttle your connection. VPN traffic is quite different to your regular http/https.