As U.S. Internet companies expand worldwide, being un-American can be key to success

Being un-American IS key to success!

being un-American can be key to success

Human nature. People come to despise their benefactors, in this case the nation that basically invented the internet.

And of course as long as America is numero uno there will always be that reflexive, unadulterated, soul-destroying envy...

Yeah, you've gotta adjust to the local market, like censoring the hell out of everything in China a la Yahoo + Google.

Is the title really apt? (un-American vs non-American...)

Burning the flag is being un-American and unpatriotic, surely.

Not being American, = being non-American??? would be the advantage here?

LIBERTAS

Very mature...

Libertas

Spoken of a true jealous person..

Nandakandamanda I would belive you are right.

i agree the title should be NON-American rather than UN-American. two entirely different meanings.

Most of the world outside the United States, if fortunate enough to be online, probably already feels 'Americanized' enough - though they are loathe to admit it was usually by choice. I understand why when they get online the last thing they want is the reminder that it was the US that made the internet possible, and that it is the US that they look to, for what's new and cutting edge.

since Al Gore invented the Internet and is a Nobel prize winner I'm sure he can fix it.

But what about those crazy google ads? Somebody gets killed with a gun (news article) and then there is a Google ad selling guns.

The Obama/Hillary/McCain ads are always funny.

Funny, I knew right away this article would elicit at least one "America sucks" response.

"Many Mideast cultures are averse to displaying women's skin"

Strange...

I do not see sratagies of promoting bussiness for a certian type consumer is that of being un- American. Sounds like just good bussiness sense which I thought we always had here in the US..

I don't think it's about being un-american as much as adjusting to what local people like and/or expect.

That said if anyone is in for a scary experience, try to load up one of the korean "portals" such as naver or daum. Be prepared for a flood of flashy gifs, popup ads, and news and gossip crammed in every possible bit of the page. It can take several minutes to load even on super-fast broad-band (I think more often it's the computer itself that gets bloated down by that much data, not the broadband)

Last time I checked google.co.kr was the same old google we know and love. The big difference with korean site is that they're NOT search engine. They are portals that feed you pre-digested information and guide you to a galaxy of affiliated sites. Compared to that, searching requires creative thinking - which is frowned upon.

This serves as a lesson for Japanese companies, especially in Asia, where they have to become as un-japanese as possible if they want to succeed.