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This is a broader issue than access to Paypal. There's lots of reasons it's not great to be a Nigerian in Nigeria - fixed elections, corruption, violence, low

by cturner 16y ago

This is a broader issue than access to Paypal. There's lots of reasons it's not great to be a Nigerian in Nigeria - fixed elections, corruption, violence, low standard of living, tension between the north and south, nasty tropical diseases, relatively lower education opportunities, weak arts community, flowover from ethnic tension in neighbouring states. In the scale of things, concern over ability to make internet payments is probably pretty low, and a concern that would be pressing only to a small elite in the country.

barrkel 16y ago
Frankly, I agree. The thrust of my comment was more on backing up the assertion that treating Nigerians this way is actually unjust, immoral; not that it doesn't make business sense, or that it's a relatively small slice of the larger pie, etc.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  I'm guessing there is all sorts of online commerce you don't engage in due to the risk of scams. Is that also unjust, due to the fact that your attempts to avoid a scam might deprive some legitimate people of your business?
  - barrkel 16y ago
    That's a distinctly different question, for several reasons. (1) Concentration of power: there's a qualitative difference between a large organization making an absolute and sustained decision on a corporate basis, and many distributed small organizations or individuals making ad-hoc iterated decisions on a case by case basis. Normal statistical variation means that in all likelihood, the market will simply be smaller, not all but extinguished. (2) Your guess may be incorrect: I find it difficult to recollect an attempted online commercial transaction that I aborted owing to fear of a scam. Now, if you knew my personal circumstances, perhaps you'd be able to direct my attention to such cases; in lieu of that, can you be more specific in your guess, and at least give me a few examples? A few points on my behaviour: it's my personal policy never to buy anything in direct response to any advertisement or inducement, whether in person, over the phone, via email, or online, if I do not have a prior independent non-commercial relationship with that entity. I will pay more for a service or product that I have found myself rather than accept a similar service or product for a lower price if that service or product was directly advertised to me; I infer that the extra expenses in reaching me directly will be more than recouped via means that are not immediately obvious to me, such that the savings are probably illusory. Any time I have ever engaged in online commerce, it directly or indirectly started out with a Google search for the product or product category in question, or for a store name found either in a previous search, by recommendation, or an online version of a brick-and-mortar store. (3) Freedom of action and the rewards to that action: most Nigerians in Nigeria have little scope for changing their situation to evade these policies; from the original position, I would not like to be in their situation. In converse, the problem of not being able to find customers is distinctly different: one may choose to sell something else, to a different market, and via a different medium. One of the risks of creating a business is that there may not be a viable market, but one of the rewards is profit when the market is viable. The risk / reward correspondence with consumers doesn't seem convincing: at best, the consumer can obtain what they wanted at a fair price; the upside is very limited.

by cturner 16y ago

barrkel 16y ago

Frankly, I agree. The thrust of my comment was more on backing up the assertion that treating Nigerians this way is actually unjust, immoral; not that it doesn't make business sense, or that it's a relatively small slice of the larger pie, etc.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
yummyfajitas 16y ago
I'm guessing there is all sorts of online commerce you don't engage in due to the risk of scams. Is that also unjust, due to the fact that your attempts to avoid a scam might deprive some legitimate people of your business?
- barrkel 16y ago
  That's a distinctly different question, for several reasons. (1) Concentration of power: there's a qualitative difference between a large organization making an absolute and sustained decision on a corporate basis, and many distributed small organizations or individuals making ad-hoc iterated decisions on a case by case basis. Normal statistical variation means that in all likelihood, the market will simply be smaller, not all but extinguished. (2) Your guess may be incorrect: I find it difficult to recollect an attempted online commercial transaction that I aborted owing to fear of a scam. Now, if you knew my personal circumstances, perhaps you'd be able to direct my attention to such cases; in lieu of that, can you be more specific in your guess, and at least give me a few examples? A few points on my behaviour: it's my personal policy never to buy anything in direct response to any advertisement or inducement, whether in person, over the phone, via email, or online, if I do not have a prior independent non-commercial relationship with that entity. I will pay more for a service or product that I have found myself rather than accept a similar service or product for a lower price if that service or product was directly advertised to me; I infer that the extra expenses in reaching me directly will be more than recouped via means that are not immediately obvious to me, such that the savings are probably illusory. Any time I have ever engaged in online commerce, it directly or indirectly started out with a Google search for the product or product category in question, or for a store name found either in a previous search, by recommendation, or an online version of a brick-and-mortar store. (3) Freedom of action and the rewards to that action: most Nigerians in Nigeria have little scope for changing their situation to evade these policies; from the original position, I would not like to be in their situation. In converse, the problem of not being able to find customers is distinctly different: one may choose to sell something else, to a different market, and via a different medium. One of the risks of creating a business is that there may not be a viable market, but one of the rewards is profit when the market is viable. The risk / reward correspondence with consumers doesn't seem convincing: at best, the consumer can obtain what they wanted at a fair price; the upside is very limited.