5 ms·

Webex is definitely a lesson in never accepting that you've won no matter what your marketshare in a space is, especially if the "switch cost" is essentially ni

Webex is definitely a lesson in never accepting that you've won no matter what your marketshare in a space is, especially if the "switch cost" is essentially nil

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
I dunno. Half the interviews I had in last 6 months were Webex invites. The other half MS Teams and one radom Google Meet in there. (in Germany, so probably Webex is more sticky with these dinosaur companies over here)
- pmarreck 3y ago
  I'm German (firstborn American, really, but all my relatives are over there) and as a tech guy it's always surprised and dismayed me, especially over the last 20-odd years, just how significantly laggardly the German world is technologically. I don't know if it's a conflict of values, Helmut Kohl being a complete Luddite idiot (and the bad legacy thereof), or some other combination of things, but Germany sure seems to have some very smart people who are also very lacking the benefits of tech that are routinely enjoyed in the States. (They would surely argue that they are, in turn, also enjoying the lack of drawbacks of some of those things, such as increased general population fitness/health, etc.) Had I been born there instead of here, I often wonder how things would have turned out as I got starved of exposure to computers, modems, programming languages, Internet, cell service, etc... I mean, I know there are communities of people there who are into all of those things, but it certainly seems to be massively de-emphasized Did I mention Helmut Kohl made some of the worst decisions possible in this area? It cannot be underemphasized how badly he mis-stepped on this stuff.
  - rvba 3y ago
    Could you please explain what he did exactly?
    - pmarreck 3y ago
      Well, it's not just his decision, but it did end up having a broader cooling effect in general. This is a decent explanation of the current Internet situation in Germany and the historical decisions that were contributions to it: https://www.settle-in-berlin.com/why-is-internet-so-bad-in-germany/ https://www.settle-in-berlin.com/why-is-internet-so-bad-in-g... It's hilarious that Angela Merkel said "the Internet is new territory" in 2013, nearly 20 years after it first burst onto the dialup scene.
brazzledazzle 3y ago
The switch cost wasn't exactly nil. As far as I'm aware most cisco stuff came with a commitment to a per-device, per-user or per-seat license and support for a period of time where the cost of those is reduced more the longer you commit when you negotiate the contract. Webex was bad enough that some enterprises were switching mid-cycle to another product and just letting the license/support for Webex go unused. Which is impressive considering how cheap corporate/enterprise procurement/finance/IT are. Granted, a lot of teams or departments were initially signing up for other services without knowledge of their corporate/enterprise IT departments which really made the quality contrast between them and Webex undeniable but that happens with a lot of stuff that gets squashed even if teams like it better and it makes them more productive.

Webex is definitely a lesson in never accepting that you've won no matter what your marketshare in a space is, especially if the "switch cost" is essentially nil

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

I dunno. Half the interviews I had in last 6 months were Webex invites. The other half MS Teams and one radom Google Meet in there. (in Germany, so probably Webex is more sticky with these dinosaur companies over here)

pmarreck 3y ago
I'm German (firstborn American, really, but all my relatives are over there) and as a tech guy it's always surprised and dismayed me, especially over the last 20-odd years, just how significantly laggardly the German world is technologically. I don't know if it's a conflict of values, Helmut Kohl being a complete Luddite idiot (and the bad legacy thereof), or some other combination of things, but Germany sure seems to have some very smart people who are also very lacking the benefits of tech that are routinely enjoyed in the States. (They would surely argue that they are, in turn, also enjoying the lack of drawbacks of some of those things, such as increased general population fitness/health, etc.) Had I been born there instead of here, I often wonder how things would have turned out as I got starved of exposure to computers, modems, programming languages, Internet, cell service, etc... I mean, I know there are communities of people there who are into all of those things, but it certainly seems to be massively de-emphasized Did I mention Helmut Kohl made some of the worst decisions possible in this area? It cannot be underemphasized how badly he mis-stepped on this stuff.
- rvba 3y ago
  Could you please explain what he did exactly?
  - pmarreck 3y ago
    Well, it's not just his decision, but it did end up having a broader cooling effect in general. This is a decent explanation of the current Internet situation in Germany and the historical decisions that were contributions to it: https://www.settle-in-berlin.com/why-is-internet-so-bad-in-germany/ https://www.settle-in-berlin.com/why-is-internet-so-bad-in-g... It's hilarious that Angela Merkel said "the Internet is new territory" in 2013, nearly 20 years after it first burst onto the dialup scene.

brazzledazzle 3y ago

The switch cost wasn't exactly nil. As far as I'm aware most cisco stuff came with a commitment to a per-device, per-user or per-seat license and support for a period of time where the cost of those is reduced more the longer you commit when you negotiate the contract. Webex was bad enough that some enterprises were switching mid-cycle to another product and just letting the license/support for Webex go unused. Which is impressive considering how cheap corporate/enterprise procurement/finance/IT are. Granted, a lot of teams or departments were initially signing up for other services without knowledge of their corporate/enterprise IT departments which really made the quality contrast between them and Webex undeniable but that happens with a lot of stuff that gets squashed even if teams like it better and it makes them more productive.