janharders - 9:04 am on Nov 12, 2009 (gmt 0)

I agree with graeme_p, I'm pretty convinced that cultural differences are the main issue. If you don't understand your audience, their situations in life etc pp, you cannot build successful products for them. And: you can copy, but you can't easily learn. You've got to have lived in the culture you want to understand for many years. That's why, imho, those new products (as in innovative, not just outsourced or copied) that make it to western markets sometimes seem a bit weird, ironic or being 10 years late.
That's for the website-part. I personally wonder why there aren't more of us going to live in places that look like paradise and are extremly inexpensive while still serving western markets.