I think you didn't get the point blazespin wrote: they said (or I read it as them saying) that since there's no way to get a "test market" in the U.S., rather t

I think you didn't get the point blazespin wrote: they said (or I read it as them saying) that since there's no way to get a "test market" in the U.S., rather than blow their "one shot" on the launch version which they can't iterate on before the whole U.S. market sees it, they use a proxy for a U.S. test market: they use a smaller foreign market. They don't care about "burning" those users or losing their "one chance" to launch, since those markets are small or at any rate a smaller launch. They then take their learnings, incorporate them and launch in the U.S. with a first version that is markedly better. so it's product development. the point isn't about marketing at all. (Except in a broad sense.) it's a product development trick, like a closed beta. I don't think you would call a closed beta "marketing" exactly. at least, this is what I read the comment as.