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Comment by architgupta | Hacker News Reader

My intuition is if people can get away with piracy, they will do it.

- SaaS is good as piracy is not a big problem.

Small/Medium Enterprise don't see a huge benefit of paying for Technology. Its both a mindset and a cost issue.

We do Tax Returns, so we see how margins are quite low for most Indian Businesses. Paying for software that can be pirated easily might tip them to a loss.

Software cost isn't factored in as a cost of doing business.

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@asto you are missing the point. Piracy is obviously a big problem. But it is a problem in practically every country. The issue here is that in India it is hard to sell technology products (SaaS or otherwise) because Indian businesses are unable to comprehend what technology can do for them. It boils down to the competence of the tech managers/evaluators at these orgs. Some of them are poor and they don't even know it.

It doesn't matter what the underlying reasons are. The point is if you are going to invest resources in something that requires Indians to actually pay for it (regardless of payment model), you are taking a big risk.

PS: I am saying "Indians" because I am quite familiar with the situation here. I am sure though, that things are quite similar in most "developing nations".

"Piracy is obviously a big problem. But it is a problem in practically every country."

Inside businesses? Really? Don't think I have ever seen pirated software at the places I have worked, and I don't believe it's very common. I have seen people "borrowing" software to install on their personal computers, but that's something else.

Is this just in Scandinavia?

Piracy is quite common in India (both Businesses and consumers). I think piracy in other Third World countries as well (anecdotal).

Well piracy is a problem for s/w industry in general.

'Borrowing' is a neat little alternative to the word 'piracy' :)

Mindset over cost. Companies here do all sorts of things to avoid small costs. I've seen some wrangle with hosting their own email on a server they have already purchased or make do with a poor experience with shared hosts simply to avoid the cost of paying for google apps once they have more than 10 users. They pay their employees atleast Rs 25,000 a month and are fretting about Rs 250?

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