8 ms·

"only available [...] in the US and UK" Can anybody think of any geo-tarded service that successfully rolled out in other countries later? Because as some not

"only available [...] in the US and UK" Can anybody think of any geo-tarded service that successfully rolled out in other countries later? Because as some not in the "chosen countries" I always feel that those services either a) never arrive, b) get beaten to the punch by local competitors or c) have to spend a shitload of money to conquer that market, sometimes by buying the aforementioned competitors. Also, unless the likes of Google or Apple are behind it, option a seems to be the most common scenario. Not to mention the fact that it fosters a culture where everyone and their grandmother knows how to pirate content.

isaacwaller 14y ago
Netflix was originally only available in the US but came to Canada later
ricardobeat 14y ago
Netflix, Amazon, iTunes match, Rdio all took a while to come to Brazil and are doing great. Still waiting for Amazon Instant.
- hcarvalhoalves 14y ago
  > ... all took a while to come to Brazil and are doing great With the exception of iTunes, they still have big holes on the content available even after launching.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    AFAIK we have the same amount of content in Netflix and Rdio as everywhere else, they are just not that good (one of the reasons I'm waiting for Instant).
balanceiskey15 14y ago
Spotify comes to mind. Facebook started out even more locally restricted.
- taneliv 14y ago
  Spotify is originally Swedish, and for a long time wasn't available in the US, only in select European markets.
rdouble 14y ago
Spotify
fudged71 14y ago
RE: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5479848 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5479848 I'd love to think that software innovations would trickle down into larger markets, across borders, and into lower brackets of economic prosperity, but things like this just really frustrate me. Canada is often treated like shit in terms of access to marketplaces and entertainment services online, and it needs to stop soon. USA, we are your closest partner, and we want to integrate with you to create and consume together. Our television and our theaters are full of american content, but our web is so fragmented in that respect. The content we can access on the tube is often blocked online. What is it going to take to break these barriers?
- rkuykendall-com 14y ago
  Is there any chance that Canada is also responsible in this? I ask because of the very strict CRTC regulations which dictate how much foreign content can be served to Canadians.
  - msbarnett 14y ago
    It has nothing to do with the CRTC and everything to do with licensing agreements and the intransigence of the Canadian rights holders.
  - corresation 14y ago
    msbarnett got it -- the CRTC has nothing to do with this, and instead it is the regional rights holders. Most US television shows, for instance, are licensed to Canadian broadcasters. Most movie play rights sold to Astral Media (the Movie Channel). Etc. Even where it's a simple subsidiary of a US media company, it still leads to Canada getting screwed. We're in the situation of being a big enough, lucrative enough market that they want to maximize revenues here, yet paradoxically we're small enough that they're usually in no rush to do so.
msbarnett 14y ago
> Can anybody think of any geo-tarded service that successfully rolled out in other countries later? Rdio, iTunes Music Store, iTunes Movie/TV Store, Netflix, Amazon's digital services, etc were all unavailable in Canada on launch and successfully rolled out later on.
- nobodyshere 14y ago
  Netflix? Hahaha, good luck with that anywhere outside Canada, USA or UK. Amazon? The same. No need to describe the rest of them. Same story everywhere. Other countries are just not on their globe.
- onemorepassword 14y ago
  Canada gets serviced fast compared to the rest of the world. In (most of) Europe, Rdio has little impact. Same goes for iTunes video. Netflix and Amazon digital are still missing. iTunes Music is the only exception, but only because of the full weight of Apple and the tie-in with Apple's playback devices. Canadian bitching about US services being unavailable is a bit of joke if you consider the rest of us are still waiting for Netflix for over a decade. There aren't even any decent alternatives because the copyright mafia makes it impossible.
- nosecreek 14y ago
  Canada has Amazon's digital services? I was surprised to see Rdio on this list as well, but it does look like they now work in Canada.
dewitt 14y ago
"Can anybody think of any geo-tarded service that successfully rolled out in other countries later?" As someone living in the US, I can only imagine the frustration people must feel not having access to content in their home countries. It would drive me nuts as well. But as someone working at a company who also tries very, very hard to make services available to people around the world (the goal is 100% coverage) I also know how hard/impossible it is to negotiate with the rights holders in every nation simultaneously. So services like Rdio or Vdio need to make a very tough choice: delay their launch, perhaps for years, perhaps forever, to negotiate the rights in all ~200 countries and territories in the world, or launch in the biggest markets first, and hope and try to iterate from there. I don't know if there even is a right answer. But I do know for sure that it's not Rdio/Vdio's choice not to launch globally. They want it the other way, too. (As an aside, the phrase "geo-tarded" doesn't sit well with me. Perhaps use "geo-challenged", which says the same thing without the additional connotations.)
- prawn 14y ago
  I think geo-tarded is OK; something retarded is delayed. Geo-limited is probably more realistic in many cases though.
dubcanada 14y ago
Strip is rolling out to other countries. TBH there is no reason for a company to not roll out so long as it is financially worth it.
- NamTaf 14y ago
  I notice that there's quite a few things Amazon still doesn't let you buy if you're in Australia. Many physical products, it seems. I can only guess this is because of distribution rights for certain products in this country. For example, my partner tries to buy nail polish but often she can't. It wouldn't surprise me if a certain distributor has that product stitched up via a distribution contract for all of Australia, therefore allowing them to monopolise price. Really, if you're not in the US it's often a completely different world for all kinds of e-commerce - anything from physical goods e.g.: off Amazon not being available for arbitrary reasons (even when others are), to media such as Pandora which has only relatively very recently become available here again after being withdrawn for literally years.

isaacwaller 14y ago

Netflix was originally only available in the US but came to Canada later

ricardobeat 14y ago

Netflix, Amazon, iTunes match, Rdio all took a while to come to Brazil and are doing great. Still waiting for Amazon Instant.

hcarvalhoalves 14y ago
> ... all took a while to come to Brazil and are doing great With the exception of iTunes, they still have big holes on the content available even after launching.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  AFAIK we have the same amount of content in Netflix and Rdio as everywhere else, they are just not that good (one of the reasons I'm waiting for Instant).

balanceiskey15 14y ago

Spotify comes to mind. Facebook started out even more locally restricted.

taneliv 14y ago
Spotify is originally Swedish, and for a long time wasn't available in the US, only in select European markets.

rdouble 14y ago

Spotify

fudged71 14y ago

RE: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5479848 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5479848 I'd love to think that software innovations would trickle down into larger markets, across borders, and into lower brackets of economic prosperity, but things like this just really frustrate me. Canada is often treated like shit in terms of access to marketplaces and entertainment services online, and it needs to stop soon. USA, we are your closest partner, and we want to integrate with you to create and consume together. Our television and our theaters are full of american content, but our web is so fragmented in that respect. The content we can access on the tube is often blocked online. What is it going to take to break these barriers?

rkuykendall-com 14y ago
Is there any chance that Canada is also responsible in this? I ask because of the very strict CRTC regulations which dictate how much foreign content can be served to Canadians.
- msbarnett 14y ago
  It has nothing to do with the CRTC and everything to do with licensing agreements and the intransigence of the Canadian rights holders.
- corresation 14y ago
  msbarnett got it -- the CRTC has nothing to do with this, and instead it is the regional rights holders. Most US television shows, for instance, are licensed to Canadian broadcasters. Most movie play rights sold to Astral Media (the Movie Channel). Etc. Even where it's a simple subsidiary of a US media company, it still leads to Canada getting screwed. We're in the situation of being a big enough, lucrative enough market that they want to maximize revenues here, yet paradoxically we're small enough that they're usually in no rush to do so.

msbarnett 14y ago

> Can anybody think of any geo-tarded service that successfully rolled out in other countries later? Rdio, iTunes Music Store, iTunes Movie/TV Store, Netflix, Amazon's digital services, etc were all unavailable in Canada on launch and successfully rolled out later on.

nobodyshere 14y ago
Netflix? Hahaha, good luck with that anywhere outside Canada, USA or UK. Amazon? The same. No need to describe the rest of them. Same story everywhere. Other countries are just not on their globe.
onemorepassword 14y ago
Canada gets serviced fast compared to the rest of the world. In (most of) Europe, Rdio has little impact. Same goes for iTunes video. Netflix and Amazon digital are still missing. iTunes Music is the only exception, but only because of the full weight of Apple and the tie-in with Apple's playback devices. Canadian bitching about US services being unavailable is a bit of joke if you consider the rest of us are still waiting for Netflix for over a decade. There aren't even any decent alternatives because the copyright mafia makes it impossible.
nosecreek 14y ago
Canada has Amazon's digital services? I was surprised to see Rdio on this list as well, but it does look like they now work in Canada.

dewitt 14y ago

"Can anybody think of any geo-tarded service that successfully rolled out in other countries later?" As someone living in the US, I can only imagine the frustration people must feel not having access to content in their home countries. It would drive me nuts as well. But as someone working at a company who also tries very, very hard to make services available to people around the world (the goal is 100% coverage) I also know how hard/impossible it is to negotiate with the rights holders in every nation simultaneously. So services like Rdio or Vdio need to make a very tough choice: delay their launch, perhaps for years, perhaps forever, to negotiate the rights in all ~200 countries and territories in the world, or launch in the biggest markets first, and hope and try to iterate from there. I don't know if there even is a right answer. But I do know for sure that it's not Rdio/Vdio's choice not to launch globally. They want it the other way, too. (As an aside, the phrase "geo-tarded" doesn't sit well with me. Perhaps use "geo-challenged", which says the same thing without the additional connotations.)

prawn 14y ago
I think geo-tarded is OK; something retarded is delayed. Geo-limited is probably more realistic in many cases though.

dubcanada 14y ago

Strip is rolling out to other countries. TBH there is no reason for a company to not roll out so long as it is financially worth it.

NamTaf 14y ago
I notice that there's quite a few things Amazon still doesn't let you buy if you're in Australia. Many physical products, it seems. I can only guess this is because of distribution rights for certain products in this country. For example, my partner tries to buy nail polish but often she can't. It wouldn't surprise me if a certain distributor has that product stitched up via a distribution contract for all of Australia, therefore allowing them to monopolise price. Really, if you're not in the US it's often a completely different world for all kinds of e-commerce - anything from physical goods e.g.: off Amazon not being available for arbitrary reasons (even when others are), to media such as Pandora which has only relatively very recently become available here again after being withdrawn for literally years.