Ask HN: Why do companies, e.g., banks, still apply a geofence?

I worked at a place that sold its products in the US and Canada and didn't sell them elsewhere. In a handful of other countries a third party supplier was distributing them, but most of the world couldn't buy them.

The website was set up such that US and Canada traffic was allowed, but other countries would bounce you to a page explaining this and then redirect to either the page for the product in the country you're in, or a generic page explaining why.

Which companies? You mean NetFlix and other streaming services?