[Torplexed]

All part of a growing trend. Some of it based on politics, some of it based on language.

China prefers Chinese. Therefore, most people there are comfortable using their own services (in Chinese). Baidu, Tecent and Sina.com are proof enough. Moreover, strict censorship and the Great Firewall of China have worked extensively towards making their Internet self-sufficient.

North Korea has no broadband. The government has been prompt in shutting down many attempts to open websites and Internet access is a privilege available only to a few elite government officials, most importantly including Kim Jong-Il himself. The people of North Korea have to be satisfied with their own internal network and call it Kwangmyong.

Russia has its own network and calls it Runet. It has done enough to learn from the global giants from niche markets like Google and Facebook and has implemented competitive features. However, all these websites are in Russian and even Facebook, which has its 70% of users outside the US, is scarcely seen in Russia. Yandex is the Google in Russia and provides almost all the services that Google provides worldwide. While Mail.ru is the leader in email services, the Rambler.ru is the most popular portal, all in Russian.