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Germany is the second to last country for IM apps usage in EU, with a mere 60% [0]. It is also the second to last country for social network accounts, with 47.7

Germany is the second to last country for IM apps usage in EU, with a mere 60% [0]. It is also the second to last country for social network accounts, with 47.7% of the population being on a social network[1]. Cash is still king[2]. Germans care about their privacy - maybe not everybody has clear all the implications of modern applications, but you cannot dismiss the care of privacy with just saying that your experience on a bus doesn't match this. [0]: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ISOC_CI_AC_I__custom_545478/bookmark/table?lang=en&bookmarkId=0acbec03-1cf4-48c7-b4d1-ca6505e006fc https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ISOC_CI_AC_I_... [1]: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ISOC_CI_AC_I__custom_545528/bookmark/table?lang=en&bookmarkId=a68d5be4-3d4d-4141-a528-f0839823c704 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ISOC_CI_AC_I_... [2]: https://www.bundesbank.de/en/press/press-releases/payment-behaviour-in-germany-in-2021-894120 https://www.bundesbank.de/en/press/press-releases/payment-be...

justeleblanc 4y ago
In general, the low IM app usage just means that mobile phone plans are cheap. It's not like the US where you have to take a payday loan to send more than five SMS a month.
- HideousKojima 4y ago
  What? Unlimited texting plans in the US can be had for $15/month, if not even cheaper.
  - justeleblanc 4y ago
    That's a recent thing. I remember spending a semester in the US a decade ago. My cheap student ass was surprised to see how expensive every mobile plan was. It was literally cheaper to buy a roaming plan in my own country for six months than to buy a plan in the US. Just FYI, here I pay 10€ for unlimited calls, text, and data, and 25GB roaming abroad per month.
- VBprogrammer 4y ago
  I don't buy this. I've had unlimited SMS messages included for as many years as I can remember but pretty much exclusively use IMs. The media integration and things like that are just much better.
  - wink 4y ago
    I don't even know any people in my (late 30s) or parents' (70+) age range who still use SMS and have not, for years.
- Tommstein 4y ago
  > It's not like the US where you have to take a payday loan to send more than five SMS a month. Sometimes it's better to just say nothing.
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
>Germany is the second to last country for IM apps usage in EU, with a mere 60% That's mostly due to German older generations being tech-illiterate and skewing the statistics, like the boomer politicians who want to have their internet "printed", and my 50 year old ex-manager who refused to use Jira and had me send him a weekly email with the tasks in progress and their status. On the other side of the spectrum, if you look at Germans under 30-35 they're all super connected via privacy shoddy apps like Telegram. >Cash is still king >[...]if you ever being to Berlin, and you want to go to a restaurant, you better bring cash. No body accepts cards or electronic payments there. That's only due to rampant tax fraud in Germany's gastronomy sector and other small businesses. So privacy there means privacy from the taxman, which is unfair for those who have to pay their fair share of (not small) taxes and support the burden of the social system.
- rpadovani 4y ago
  [citation needed] Of course, there is no way to know exactly how much tax fraud there is, but it doesn't seem that tax fraud in Germany is particularly high: https://www.taxobservatory.eu/repository/estimating-international-tax-evasion-by-individuals/ https://www.taxobservatory.eu/repository/estimating-internat...
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    >[citation needed] No citation, just my anecdotal time working in the gastronomy sector as a student and that of several of my friends as well. Seeing the owners at the end of the night carrying home buckets full of cash out of the restaurant that will never be seen in any tax declarations is a common sight, and will just be dumped into cars and real estate later. This isn't restricted just to gastronomy and hospitality either. Lots of businesses deals in Germany are done on a handshake, with sums declared in the contract at, say 10k Euros, with the actual payment for the services being something like 50k Euros, meaning only 10k gets taxed, the rest is tax free for you. You get the point. In case you're wondering why real este buying prices in Germany are so high and seem completely disconnected from the median wages, that's one of the reasons why. Lots of undeclared black money sloshing around the economy looking for a safe parking space. >but it doesn't seem that tax fraud in Germany is particularly high Meh, irrelevant. That statistics looks at offshore untaxed wealth. Most small business owners dealing in cash won't have accounts in Bermuda or Panama for that.

justeleblanc 4y ago

In general, the low IM app usage just means that mobile phone plans are cheap. It's not like the US where you have to take a payday loan to send more than five SMS a month.

HideousKojima 4y ago
What? Unlimited texting plans in the US can be had for $15/month, if not even cheaper.
- justeleblanc 4y ago
  That's a recent thing. I remember spending a semester in the US a decade ago. My cheap student ass was surprised to see how expensive every mobile plan was. It was literally cheaper to buy a roaming plan in my own country for six months than to buy a plan in the US. Just FYI, here I pay 10€ for unlimited calls, text, and data, and 25GB roaming abroad per month.
VBprogrammer 4y ago
I don't buy this. I've had unlimited SMS messages included for as many years as I can remember but pretty much exclusively use IMs. The media integration and things like that are just much better.
- wink 4y ago
  I don't even know any people in my (late 30s) or parents' (70+) age range who still use SMS and have not, for years.
Tommstein 4y ago
> It's not like the US where you have to take a payday loan to send more than five SMS a month. Sometimes it's better to just say nothing.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

>Germany is the second to last country for IM apps usage in EU, with a mere 60% That's mostly due to German older generations being tech-illiterate and skewing the statistics, like the boomer politicians who want to have their internet "printed", and my 50 year old ex-manager who refused to use Jira and had me send him a weekly email with the tasks in progress and their status. On the other side of the spectrum, if you look at Germans under 30-35 they're all super connected via privacy shoddy apps like Telegram. >Cash is still king >[...]if you ever being to Berlin, and you want to go to a restaurant, you better bring cash. No body accepts cards or electronic payments there. That's only due to rampant tax fraud in Germany's gastronomy sector and other small businesses. So privacy there means privacy from the taxman, which is unfair for those who have to pay their fair share of (not small) taxes and support the burden of the social system.

rpadovani 4y ago
[citation needed] Of course, there is no way to know exactly how much tax fraud there is, but it doesn't seem that tax fraud in Germany is particularly high: https://www.taxobservatory.eu/repository/estimating-international-tax-evasion-by-individuals/ https://www.taxobservatory.eu/repository/estimating-internat...
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  >[citation needed] No citation, just my anecdotal time working in the gastronomy sector as a student and that of several of my friends as well. Seeing the owners at the end of the night carrying home buckets full of cash out of the restaurant that will never be seen in any tax declarations is a common sight, and will just be dumped into cars and real estate later. This isn't restricted just to gastronomy and hospitality either. Lots of businesses deals in Germany are done on a handshake, with sums declared in the contract at, say 10k Euros, with the actual payment for the services being something like 50k Euros, meaning only 10k gets taxed, the rest is tax free for you. You get the point. In case you're wondering why real este buying prices in Germany are so high and seem completely disconnected from the median wages, that's one of the reasons why. Lots of undeclared black money sloshing around the economy looking for a safe parking space. >but it doesn't seem that tax fraud in Germany is particularly high Meh, irrelevant. That statistics looks at offshore untaxed wealth. Most small business owners dealing in cash won't have accounts in Bermuda or Panama for that.