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Mexicos overall internet presence is literally stuck in the early 2000s. Most business' official website are a Facebook page. In a country of 150M people and
by pxue 4y ago
Mexicos overall internet presence is literally stuck in the early 2000s.
Most business' official website are a Facebook page.
In a country of 150M people and growing expat presence, there is a TON of opportunities for software businesses to enter the market.
For example: Riviera Maya has no MLS style real estate tracker/listing platform. The entire real estate industry operates on word of mouth, WhatsApp and Facebook messages.
- galangalalgol 4y agoI keep running into this in the US in large cities. Really well regarded restaurants or music venues do everything through FB and insta. I don't have either of those apps, and I don't remember my passwords from a decade ago. Isn't there a service somewhere, where you give someone some pictures of your food, and restaurant, and you get a container and credentials for a webpage that handles reservations, takes pickup or delivery orders, and lets you update the menu? Why do people do this?
- _tom_ 4y agoBecause Facebook is simple. Any one can update it, and it doesn't go down, and it doesn't cost anything. I've many times seen web presences fail for small organizations, when the only person that understands the web set up leaves. With Facebook, that doesn't happen. I'm sure there are services such as you describe, and probably many restaurants use them, and it's not obvious. But Facebook is the default.
- lalos 4y agoNo, because facebook is free and they are cozy with the mexican government and this allows them to operate in a country without net neutrality. Therefore facebook, whatsapp and instagram are included for free in most if not all cellphone plans and pay per month options.
- lofaszvanitt 4y agoYeah, sadly. Tbh, if you don't have a separate page for your establishment, then you are a joke. Facebook pages are just horrible.
- galangalalgol 4y agoI've seen that too. Or when the framework chosen goes away. If the person at a small restaurant or non profit who understood the page goes away you can at least find someone to come up to speed. But sometimes it relies on stuff that just isn't there anymore and you have to start over. I'm not in web dev, or whatever its called, but is there some technology in the space that is the equivalent ofba T-shirt and blue jeans, or a charcoal suit, that will be fine for a couple decades with only informational updates?
- dicriseg 4y agoWordPress is my first thought.
- Gasp0de 4y agoYou have to constantly install updates for it to stay secure, then every second update your theme breaks, you find out it's not updated for the new version and have to redesign the whole page.
- morog 4y agoI guess he's referring to WordPress.com which means no updates needed...at least for simple sites
- leansensei 4y agoI've made excellent experiences with GravCMS across 5 different websites since 2015.
- mrbombastic 4y agoIt is a failure of our industry that this is the best option for a lot of small businesses.
- irrational 4y agoI’ve wondered this too. I don’t know any young people (at least nobody my kids’ ages between 17 and 26) who use Facebook. It seems like they might be missing a large part of their target audience.
- adammarples 4y agoIn the UK we have OpenTable which does exactly that very well
- phil21 4y ago> Why do people do this? Others have pointed out the simplicity of it. Just use an existing platform, doesn't take much IT skill at all. The other answer is that this is where the people are. Why waste time building your own website when only those searching you will visit it? Interacting with the various social media platforms instead gives you far more options on discoverability. If you must maintain a presence on those platforms anyways, it becomes even less compelling for a small non-tech company to maintain their own infrastructure.
- robswc 4y agoIs there much of a market, given that they already use the tools mentioned? Genuinely curious. I've always hated sales but would love to work on making existing solutions better.
- pxue 4y agoFacebook marketplace is as trustless as you can get. It's 2010 version of Kijiji/Craigslist with built-in picture upload. Right now depending on how much effort you want to spend, you can get a place for $2000 usd a month or $600 a month, for relatively similar unit maybe 20min of walk distance apart. Simply because information does not flow freely. Airbnb fixed the trust issue and dominated rental market in the last few years. But hefty fees + taxes are making them less and less viable for travelers. I honestly see a big opportunity to just improve the overall experience. Especially considering Riviera Maya is the fasted growing realestate market in Mexico. If you're serious about working on something like this, email me (check my profile), let's connect.
- robswc 4y agoInteresting, definitely down to talk about this more!
- Cryptokey199512 4y ago[flagged]
- anakaine 4y agoI'd also be quite interested in working on this.
- Cryptokey199512 4y ago[flagged]
- Cryptokey199512 4y ago[flagged]
- cicloid 4y agoWhatsapp, Facebook, even Twitter are free in most Mexican Carriers. That is what not having proper net neutrality is in Mexico.
- mersenne 4y agoAs a Mexican who travels plenty to the US and works for an American company and has worked for another top-tier software company from the US, I believe this statement is false. E-commerce platforms, “sharing economy” apps, neo-banks, dating apps, real estate platforms, etc. are all used every single day by millions of people.
- pxue 4y agoOk I can be wrong. Mexico is a big place. How would you typically find a place to rent where you live?
- luismmolina 4y agoMexican living in México, ~95% of the population use Facebook, word of mouth or driving around where you want to find a place to rent. Of course there are many sites that you can use to find a place to rent, but the best deals and more options are available on Facebook.
- pxue 4y agoYeah. My experience been this too. Facebook doesn't act as the central trust authority. So as an expat, most realtor is telling me to avoid FB and use them because scams. But as a user it's inefficient to talk to 20 Realtors for 20 listings. I just want something in between that doesn't inflate the actual price by 40%