Why have CIS services become some of the best in the world?

Recently, I had to look for information on English-language resources. After that I realized two things: there is a lot of good content out there and even more bad sites. And it turned out that there is such a problem not only in web design and layout, but also in other services.

And today I want to talk about why there is such a skew in the world, where the birthplace of iPhones has problems with the Internet, while the CIS, where there are fewer IT companies, has so many good services.

Here we will discuss the American Internet. There is a company called Comcast that lays and maintains cables for internet access. It serves over 110 million homes in the US. There is also Hughesnet. By some estimates, it provides satellite internet access to 300 million+ devices. This large percentage of users allows them to set their own terms as there is no competition. 

People living in towns and villages don't have a choice of providers. It is often the case that there are only a few and providers have an agreement among themselves not to improve the quality of the Internet. Upgrading the infrastructure is expensive. Therefore, it may seem to be the best solution for them. In some cases, a settlement has only one provider. 

But Rostelecom has a number of broadband users ranging from 10 to 14 million. Plus, there are many small operators in the country. Therefore, in case of anything, the user can simply switch to another provider.

In New York City, they still haven't been able to make a proper heating system. Because of this, you can often see steam coming from the boilers. To modernize it, the system, which now has 170 km of pipelines, would have to be replaced. It's the same with digital infrastructure - upgrades cost insane amounts of money. 

And not everyone is willing to pay for it. Many companies will simply go bankrupt as they are forced to compete with monopolists. This applies to the internet, banks, and delivery services. A simple example: a monopolist comes in, dumping prices, and then raises them after the competitors close down.

In general it looks like this:

• Infrastructure has developed faster in Western countries.
• With the advent of new technologies, there are ways to do slow but cheap internet. Or you can do something expensive and fast. There are no alternatives.
• In Russia, infrastructure developed more slowly. Therefore, the country found itself in a technological hole.
• Many cheap but bad technologies were unavailable. Therefore, in many ways we were forced to have a good network.

Many companies would love to improve their services, but the political, economic or social situation does not allow it. For example, more and more Russians are paying by cashless payment. And in some countries it is not widespread. And migrants from there are either not used to paying by card or do not know how to do so at all. That is why in large cities there are even laws prohibiting the sale of goods only by bank transfer.

Education and skills play a huge role in the issue of wages. Therefore, let's take the average temperature of the hospital. In 2024, the average web designer in the US will earn about $57,000 per year. At the same time, Forbes shows that the average salary is only $55,000 per year. And the average salary of a programmer-turner in Russia is 65+ thousand rubles.

And this is where several points arise:

• In the US, $55,000 a year is a normal salary. But for India, it is fabulous money. The average salary there is $23,000. So they see working for foreigners as a gold mine. And some companies pay not for results but for the number of written lines of code. This leads to the appearance of low-quality sites. And also such a move has led to the creation of Hindu code.
• Web programmers don't earn as much, which means there are fewer schools and motivated people. And fewer talented people means fewer good ideas. Look at the websites of big companies. They look better and are, on average, more user-friendly. That's because those firms can afford it.

But the desire to stand out has a downside. Sometimes sites are made too twisted, because of which they take a long time to load and slow down. So more effects - not always good.