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Hello alephnerd, Loved reading your insights. I am one of the editors of this story, and I was surprised when the reporters told me that most other tools (Googl

Hello alephnerd, Loved reading your insights. I am one of the editors of this story, and I was surprised when the reporters told me that most other tools (Google and Microsoft) did not allow African entrepreneurs to pay in local currencies. That does seem like something that can be easily fixed, if there's will. Here's hoping that all global companies make the playing field even for all global entrepreneurs.

alephnerd 3y ago
My hunch is Zoho is using Razorpay (YC W15) internally for payments. A company like GOOG can't justify using a product like Razorpay that is directly competing with internal platforms. > That does seem like something that can be easily fixed It's a very hard problem due to KYC, AML, and a multitude of other compliance and legal headaches. That's why Stripe and Razorpay can justify multi-billion dollar valuations.
- robertlagrant 3y ago
  > A company like GOOG can't justify using a product like Razorpay that is directly competing with internal platforms. This does seem silly, though, even though it's probably already obvious to say. If they want to build something, and why not, build an integrating service over the top of that one and the internal ones, and figure out how to select the one to use based on the currency/location/etc.
  - alephnerd 3y ago
    No company ever pays a competitor. It's partially for financial reasons (why should I pay you to undermine my lead) as well as competitive (the competitor can extrapolate our own internal trends, and then potentially use it against us in competitive deals). This is why Walmart is famous for forcing every single one of it's vendors not use Amazon services in a Walmart related SKU (eg. If I'm selling a SaaS to Walmart, I either need to migrate the Walmart portion to GCP or Azure, or not get the Walmart contract).
    - sebzim4500 3y ago
      >No company ever pays a competitor. Didn't Apple use a bunch of Samsung components in the iPhone for years?
      - alephnerd 3y ago
        It was because they had no choice. Samsung holds the patent and all the IP for OLED displays. The moment a Samsung competitor is large enough, they move to them. For example, switching from Samsung foundaries to TSMC by 2018.
        vitus 3y ago
        Apple also buys Google Cloud products for iCloud even though there are alternatives that don't have rival mobile platforms. If Google used market research from Cloud customer usage patterns to bolster its Android products, then I would expect various regulatory agencies to start knocking on our door with (more) antitrust action and calling for a breakup of the company. Similarly, I'd be surprised if Samsung uses its foundry customer data for market research for its smartphone segment.
        alephnerd 3y ago
        > Apple also buys Google Cloud products for iCloud even though there are alternatives that don't have rival mobile platforms. GCP is separate from Google. While they're both Alphabet subsidiaries, the pot of money used by GCP is separate from the pot of money used by the Pixel team (within Google). Kurien doesn't report to Pichai and vice versa. > then I would expect various regulatory agencies to start knocking on our door with (more) antitrust action and calling for a breakup of the company This falls under "competitive intelligence" which ISN'T treated as corporate espionage legally, because you are extrapolating data from sources. As I've mentioned on here before, Competitive Intel is SOP for all companies, and every largeish (post-Series D) company has a CompIntel department under their PM or PMM org.
        3y ago
- lupusreal 3y ago
  How hard could it be for a company as large as Google to hire a few dozen lawyers and accountants in every country they're able to do business in?
  - 6510 3y ago
    Not very hard but they should prefer big fat clients over tiny ones. Google products are at the top of my list of things to avoid. I don't have time for their endless work for free assignments. I'll reluctantly use their services if they are just to good but I keep in mind I'm not client material. I hear of zoho for the first time, it apparently has 100m users. I hear they have actual support. There are employees on this page answering questions, or should I say busting myths? I haven't seen any of their products and it already sounds superior.

alephnerd 3y ago

My hunch is Zoho is using Razorpay (YC W15) internally for payments. A company like GOOG can't justify using a product like Razorpay that is directly competing with internal platforms. > That does seem like something that can be easily fixed It's a very hard problem due to KYC, AML, and a multitude of other compliance and legal headaches. That's why Stripe and Razorpay can justify multi-billion dollar valuations.

robertlagrant 3y ago
> A company like GOOG can't justify using a product like Razorpay that is directly competing with internal platforms. This does seem silly, though, even though it's probably already obvious to say. If they want to build something, and why not, build an integrating service over the top of that one and the internal ones, and figure out how to select the one to use based on the currency/location/etc.
- alephnerd 3y ago
  No company ever pays a competitor. It's partially for financial reasons (why should I pay you to undermine my lead) as well as competitive (the competitor can extrapolate our own internal trends, and then potentially use it against us in competitive deals). This is why Walmart is famous for forcing every single one of it's vendors not use Amazon services in a Walmart related SKU (eg. If I'm selling a SaaS to Walmart, I either need to migrate the Walmart portion to GCP or Azure, or not get the Walmart contract).
  - sebzim4500 3y ago
    >No company ever pays a competitor. Didn't Apple use a bunch of Samsung components in the iPhone for years?
    - alephnerd 3y ago
      It was because they had no choice. Samsung holds the patent and all the IP for OLED displays. The moment a Samsung competitor is large enough, they move to them. For example, switching from Samsung foundaries to TSMC by 2018.
      - vitus 3y ago
        Apple also buys Google Cloud products for iCloud even though there are alternatives that don't have rival mobile platforms. If Google used market research from Cloud customer usage patterns to bolster its Android products, then I would expect various regulatory agencies to start knocking on our door with (more) antitrust action and calling for a breakup of the company. Similarly, I'd be surprised if Samsung uses its foundry customer data for market research for its smartphone segment.
        alephnerd 3y ago
        > Apple also buys Google Cloud products for iCloud even though there are alternatives that don't have rival mobile platforms. GCP is separate from Google. While they're both Alphabet subsidiaries, the pot of money used by GCP is separate from the pot of money used by the Pixel team (within Google). Kurien doesn't report to Pichai and vice versa. > then I would expect various regulatory agencies to start knocking on our door with (more) antitrust action and calling for a breakup of the company This falls under "competitive intelligence" which ISN'T treated as corporate espionage legally, because you are extrapolating data from sources. As I've mentioned on here before, Competitive Intel is SOP for all companies, and every largeish (post-Series D) company has a CompIntel department under their PM or PMM org.
        3y ago
lupusreal 3y ago
How hard could it be for a company as large as Google to hire a few dozen lawyers and accountants in every country they're able to do business in?
- 6510 3y ago
  Not very hard but they should prefer big fat clients over tiny ones. Google products are at the top of my list of things to avoid. I don't have time for their endless work for free assignments. I'll reluctantly use their services if they are just to good but I keep in mind I'm not client material. I hear of zoho for the first time, it apparently has 100m users. I hear they have actual support. There are employees on this page answering questions, or should I say busting myths? I haven't seen any of their products and it already sounds superior.