

Ask HN: Third world country, Internet company success stories? - ya3r

I'm a CS student living in a third world country, and I am starting a Internet company in October.<p>I was curious to know about other successful Internet companies in third world or developing countries. There for I could use their experience.<p>Here in third world countries we have quite different problems. For example we don't have that many Internet users.<p>EDIT: I have read lots of PG's essays but little info there are applicable in my country. Like we don't have angles or VCs here.
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fabiandesimone
Well, I guess we would have first to define success...

I'm currently in private alpha with my Blackberry App. Is a panic button for
Blackberry users in dangerous cities in Latin America (mainly).

I've been online for about 60 days, have done zero marketing, no push of the
app and have around 300 active users. People seem to really like the app.

Twitter has been abuzz with people talking about it and in a few weeks I'm
releasing the first "beta" version and will start charging for it. Lets see
how that goes.

I'm starting my focus in Venezuela since I'm from there and know the market
pretty well. The main problem is the government restrictions in my country to
charge in a foreign country (in this case dollars) so I have to charge in the
local currency, but there are no payment gateways... is very complicated.

All an all, I think the private alpha has been a success, so there you go :)

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mailarchis
Some of the successful internet companies in India

1\. irctc.co.in - indian railways gov site to sell tickets online. largest
amount of online transactions happen over here 2\. naukri.com - jobs site 3\.
shaadi.com/ bharatmatrimony.com - matrimony site 4\. redbus.in - online bus
ticketing 5\. bookmyshow.com - online movie ticketing 6\. zomato.com/burrp.com
- local search websites with reviews 7\.
makemytrip.com/yatra.com/cleartrip.com - online air ticketing sites

There are lot more. Maybe others can add in. If you find that internet users
is low in number you can try for a hybrid online/offline model. This is
something that early job and matrimonial sites did in india

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sathishmanohar
While I use ticketing sites quite often. I have complete hatred for matrimony
services. Sure, they are successful, and are profitable, But, they offend me
ethically, sorting people by race, and weighing and matching by income? Sorry,
I have no respect for them.

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anujkk
True but that's how arranged marriages work in India. Exceptions may exist but
most parents here still look for match of same caste/sub-caste with high
income levels.

Matrimonial sites just help people find brides and grooms in they way they
want.

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kirchart
I'm from Mexico .. my company is: Guali.com.mx.

We do adwords assistance for company's in Mexico, we started this with $300usd
15 months ago and now we have around $8,000 usd on the bank and like 25 paying
customers (each give us at leas 80usd each month)

We also applied for "Startup Chile" Program and we got selected yesterday ..
they will give us $40k on equality-free money.

I'm 24 years old .. i started my project just when graduated and I'm really
satisfied with the accomplished goals by now.

And yes .. I'm from a third world country .. if you want excuses you will find
a lot, if you want a way to succeed .. guess what? .. you can find a lot to.

~~~
ya3r
I'm from Iran.

I really liked your finishing sentence.

_if you want excuses you will find a lot, if you want a way to succeed ..
guess what? .. you can find a lot to._

~~~
kirchart
thanks man :) .. 100% true

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nateberkopec
I'm a huge fan of the work of Ushahidi in Kenya (<http://ushahidi.com/>).
They're probably the first "real" tech startup out of Nairobi.

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rubinelli
Check out Nasper's portfolio; they have heavily invested in successful
Internet and media companies in emerging countries:
[http://www.chubbybrain.com/investors/naspers/investment-
port...](http://www.chubbybrain.com/investors/naspers/investment-portfolio)

In Brazil, the four friends in a garage to multi-million dollar company story
every young entrepreneur tries to emulate is the shopping comparison site
BuscaPé.

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jibjab
I know that visualwebsiteoptimizer.com is run from India.

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whacker
<http://www.flipkart.com>

Very successful. And outstanding service.

I am a happy customer.

~~~
sathishmanohar
flipkart aren't profitable yet. are they?

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sathishmanohar
It would be easier to access your situation, if you tell your country.

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ya3r
I live in Iran/Tehran. Our situation in some what similar to other countries
in Middle East, but worth. e.g we don't have paypal, EC2, google app engine,
good Internet speeds, etc.

