

Africa is the last wave of outsroucing  - ashnyc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12004815
There is only on last place let on this earth where you can have a labor arbitrage, and africa it is. Asia still has some room but africa will be the last big labor pool
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maxklein
Kenya has an advantage over most other cheap countries for call center
outsourcing, and it's the accent. The kenyan accent is easy to understand and
more crisp, compared to accents like Indian, Chinese or West African. See
sample: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U1h51HiqTg>

~~~
mattm
I don't know if I agree with this completely. I lived in Nairobi in the summer
of 2004 and had a real difficult time understanding people for the first
couple of weeks.

However, the people generally do speak quite slowly with melodic voices and
emphasized pronunciation.

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ohashi
Kenya is interesting. Heard of a competitor doing it while I was in Asia. I
looked at Ethiopia, but the cost of telecom is huge. With Kenya getting a
fiber and some semblance of stability that alone is a game changer. Not sure
what the labor differential is, but English+Fiber+Relative Stability == pretty
good candidate. Assuming cost is equal or below Philippines, I would
definitely consider it.

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ryana
A friend of mine from grad school was born to a Nigerian father (who now
practices medicine in South Africa) and spent a good bit of time there growing
up. He said that a handful of people there are desperate for the ability to
start firms like this because of the large number of native-English speakers
and the fact that they are in the same time zone as England. There's
definitely a belief among successful Africans that Africa could be the next
step for outsourcing.

However, they all knew that it wasn't something that could work because of the
perception of doing business in Nigeria. The article makes it seem like there
is a still a little of that concern with Kenya, but it looks like they may be
the ultimate winner in this arena.

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l0nwlf
You can fix the typo. [ outsroucing -> outsourcing ]

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Qz
The linked to map of the undersea cable network is pretty interesting as well:

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11864350>

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dkarl
What about outsourcing to Russia when it becomes a reasonable place for
foreign firms to do business? It seems like that wave is yet to come.

~~~
natnat
Russia is problematic in that its government is notoriously corrupt and
controlled by the mob and Russian business interests, but its workers are not
poor (and therefore cheap) enough for foreign investors to be able to overlook
Russia's political problems.

~~~
jscore
"Russia is problematic in that its government is notoriously corrupt and
controlled by the mob and Russian business interests, "

Don't listen to Western media. I'm sure Russian government would be supportive
of anything that provides jobs to the working class.

~~~
aberkowitz
I'd advise that you read about the demise of Yukos, formerly one of Russia's
largest companies.

~~~
geoka9
A good case in point. It is illustrative that the demise was initiated by the
arrest of its owner, who was the only Russian oligarch who "came clean" by
publicly acknowledging the corruption of the Russia's top businesses and
state, and called for transparency in both.

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known
Business is about profit & loss. Do not expect patriotism.

    
    
        Chinese economy  = American capitalism - Human rights
        Indian economy   = American capitalism + Wage slavery
        African economy   = American capitalism + Slavery
    

In globalized economy, jobs will go where businesses get maximum profit.

~~~
alexro
Or cheap people will come to where businesses get maximum profits

~~~
known
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insourcing> _versus_
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing>

------
yesno
Race to the bottom.

~~~
berntb
>>Race to the bottom.

Probably, but you seem to imply that is bad?!

What happens when all the world's areas of dirt poor people has been "used up"
by outsourcing, so they lack dirt poor people? [Edit: That is, what will
happen after the race to the bottom?]

I really don't have an idea about the answer. But the world will be better,
with much fewer poor people.

~~~
yesno
Will the world become a better place?

That depends on whom you asked. From my perspective the world was a better
place in the past but that's my personal opinions.

Has India become a better country because of all the offshoring? Their GDP
might increase, but what about their quality of life? What about those
overwork IT workers?

There are 2 things I learned in life so far:

1) There's this thing called "balance".

One gives, the other receives. One gets something, the other lose something.
Addition, subtraction.

2) Money is the root of all evil.

I've never perceived that money can make the world a better place. In 1998,
money nearly destroys Asia. In 2008, money hurts western countries.

US residents probably have more money than the other countries. But at the
same time, check out the obesity level of US residents. Check out how many
trash US produces. Why do you think people are buzzing over "green" thing.

If you have more money, you will want more of everything. The end result of
this cycle hasn't been good so far.

As of today, the world has more problems than it was. Eliminate one, then two
or more problems will arise.

~~~
yesno
[Edit]

Obviously I'm ignorant. Excuse me.

~~~
berntb
Obviously you neither know every area, nor have you thought about every type
of problem. I haven't done that either. Or anyone else. The important thing is
to love learning.

If you haven't thought at least a bit about a problem area, you don't know
enough to realize that you don't understand it. _That_ has happened to me many
times.

I'm sorry if I was rough in the last comment.

