Doing that in a way that actually makes search better is hard (and ACS isn't that at all)
10 karma · joined February 24, 2017
We've tested various hybrid approaches as well, but that's too much to go into in once post.
Tons of developing countries have super aggressive financial/general regulations, for example India requires all data be stored in-country so you can't shard across geozones [https://www.lawfareblog.com/key-global-takeaways-indias-revi...]. In fact, the countries with the most complex financial compliance are almost all developing [https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/five-of-10-most-complex-c...].
But the bigger thing is generally how advanced the existing finance infra is. Lots of countries have really slow bank transfers, processing a refund requires handing in physical paperwork, etc. Stripe relies on having underlying bank infra that's somewhat functional.
As far as the EU, the regulatory environment is manageble, but the payment landscape is very different from the US where Stripe originated. For example, in Germany only around 30% of users pay for stuff online via card [https://askwonder.com/research/german-market-what-s-breakdow...], that means for every country a ton of new payment methods have to be added for the service to be actually useful.
Coverage is spotty. It's crazy how much people here underestimate the lack of willingness of many business to use these systems. I live 45 minutes away from SF and recently got a haircut at a decently popular place and it was cash only. Adoption of new technology by small businesses is really slow.