I recently travelled to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. I found an obvious, but profound truth hiding in plain sight. The world around me operated on a mostly different technology stack. Most of the apps I am used to were obsolete. Clearly I wasn't distracted enough by the incredible nature around me.
A small example of this: Uber does not operate in Kyrgyzstan, and its Russian equivalent (Yandex) did not support many routes throughout the country. The solution to this was to join a Telegram group chat with thousands of taxi drivers, and post my request, eventually someone would respond and accept our ride request. WTF
In the places that I live and travel to, Uber has 100% penetration, and everyone uses iMessage. Those who travel and interact with places outside of the utopias that our western coastal cities are, see the profound impact of the anti-software built for the rest of the world [1] . American Software companies are the biggest in the world because of how rich their customers are. As the rest of the world is not far behind, it's important to recognize the value and opportunity there is building software for those outside the Bay Area.
From this I draw two lessons:
1. The best ideas are often so good that they can be replicated in different markets, with similar levels of success. Copying works better than people let on. [2]
2. As tech companies prioritize high ACV western users, there are massive opportunities in building software for the rest of the world. Distribution can amortize costs across large user bases, and provide favorable economics and reach. The marginal value of a new user becomes greater than their cost to serve, and as software gets cheaper, this flywheel becomes more powerful. Certain businesses, like social networks, take full advantage of this.
1. A large portion of my friends use Whatsapp to communicate with their family across the world.
2. Zero to One is a compelling argument to build something new, but I think Thiel underestimates the positive impact of copying.