Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to how the Internet is different in Germany. This was interesting! Go check out their channel: / passporttwo Thanks for subscribing for more German reactions every weekday!
WhatsApp is as popular as it is because it's a cross-platform group messenger. Not locked to android or apple, can do lots of things sms can't. There are technically better options nowadays, but for that kind of service, ubiquity/availability is the number one priority, and WhatsApp as the oldest service is the app that everyone has, so changing to something with better ui or privacy makes all groups you'd need impossible, so WhatsApp stays far at the top.
also it uses very little data.. very handy when working in remote locations or locations were data usage is expensive (looking at you Falkland Islands)
It's always funny when people from the US tell you to "just use facetime" often not even knowing it's a service exclusive to Apple devices. On other phones you have to use a supported browser just to connect with it meaning most users outside the Apple bubble can't use it at all.
@@jasonnchuleft894 Now I wonder the user distribution across ios/android in the US. With that tweet it sounds like iPhones would have >80% marketshare over there.
@@HappyBeezerStudios I think the main reason is that it's one of those Kleenex type deals over there, where a brand name has replaced the actual term in the common tongue. Most people probably don't even think about it.
I don't even remember the last time I sent a regular text message. It just seems like a nostalgic thing of the past to me. WhatsApp has become the norm here pretty much since the arrival of smart phones. Part of the reason is that Android phones have a much larger market share and so the apple specific messaging features aren't something you can use for texting most people. WhatsApp on the other hand is universally compatible. Also the rates for text messages were always specific to your cellphone plan and texting or calling internationally comes at a higher cost and back in the day you often still paid per message sent which was also circumvented by using WhatsApp since it just uses your regular data plan regardless where the person you call or text is located.
You obviously don't work for the city administration or have elderly relatives (those familiar with cell phones, but unable to handle smart phones). I do work with regular contact to people from city administration. If I want to send a high def photo of something broken that needs approval to be fixed I have to send said pictures via email. The city doesn't allow any messaging apps on their phones. And I do have contact to several people with so called "Diensttelefon" (phones provided by the company for work related use only). None of them have a messaging app. I have to use SMS or email. Germany in the 21st century.
These cookie banners are pro consumer rights and it should be made more obvious and clear how to denie all tracking cookies in each method. Getting rid of them would be a very bad idea.(Unless you ban tracking cookies altogether)
I don't think it would be a bad thing to remove them completly. It should be opt in instead of opt out for the third party cookies. Like you visit a website and have no banner because it only uses the necessary cookies. If you want to install those datamining coockies you can klick a button somewhere on the buttom of the website. Easy as that.
That was the intention of the EU and the GDPR, and definitely the best for the users. But, you would not believe, the companies that offer free to use services want to make money. And if a service don't cost anything the user is the product the company sells. So a marked developed, to make consent to only the least amount of cookies as hard as possible. Next step is, the EU will define clearly how much annoying the users will be allowed - cats and mouse.
The EU should stop bowing to businesses and get rid of the legitimate interest hogwash and really punish the the companies that don't set rehect as the general standart. And also give costumers information on how to set up their systems so all the spying is blocked on the client site. And of course put a stop to companies like Alphabet who throw a tantrum about any government regulation (ban all children and their mention from videos because a government implemented child protection standarts for companies, geoblock copyrighted material in countries where copyright violations can't be just bought off with dribbels of ad revenue, paying no taxes, milking their monopolies and so on).
There are add ons you can use to just say no to non-required cookies. But it's really not the regulators fault, the regulations are quite clear that any nonrequired tracking ought to be opt-in, that no undue burden should be placed on consumers etc. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped companies from using dark UI patterns in the hopes of confusing end users into agreeing to being tracked. Most websites are somewhere between malicious compliance and straight up noncompliance when it comes to handling things like cookies.
I live in Munich, our download is 934.76 Mbps (just did the speedtest). But what "patchy internet availibility" in Germany really means (at least to me) refers to the speed and coverage of internet OUTSIDE your home when you access with your mobile dataplan. And that is indeed so patchy and thus very annoying!
It clearly states that Munich has one of the highest fiber coverage throughout Germany. Using munich as a reference is not valid here. I live in a small city and get 1000/50. With a 3 minutes drive i can get to some places where 50 Mbits Download is already the best you can get. These places are covered with 5G mobile network up to 300 Mbits though.
@@feelmyhate2 and on the other hand there is Bonn, where I had max. 20 mbit download and 9 upload and No wifi there or in Meindorf/Sankt Augustin. But then again. It is rather rural there despite the Autobahn
@@feelmyhate2 you are right. Munich is not a good example for bad Internet speed. Justed mentioned our speed to say the opposite actually "this is what good speed can look like" But i commented more to make the other point about the Internet outside your home.
For work I daily cross the border from Schleswig Holstein to Hamburg and every single time the internet connection as well as the phone connection breaks down....
Just to clarify - in germany a fax is a legal document - that means signed contracts can be sent by fax and are legally binding - emails are not. This explains why govenrnment offices have fax machines. By the way, in the video you showed they were having problems with the WiFi (which is NOT the internet connection). They should get a better router. Generally proces here are VERY much cheaper that in the USA.
Emails can be legal documents, it's just the governmental internal regulations do not allow them to be accepted as such. If you receive a written warning for copyright infringement by mail you better react to it just as well as if you had gotten a formal letter. It is just as valid and considered just as received as a formal letter.
@@Finsternis.. not really. E-Mails have the same legal status as a postcard. If you get one for copyright infringement, that either comes from a country where emails are considered official mail (not sure if that is the case in America, but in Germany it has no legal binding even if it has somewhere else), from a company that wants you to believe it is official, or you'll get it in paper a few weeks after ignoring the mail.
The funny thing is, most company faxes are send via email as an PDF attachment nowadays. You scan your document, attach it and send it to your companys fax converter service which then delivers the fax. More often then not there is also a fax converter listening on the receivers end who converts it back to an email. You can even set this up yourself since many routers like the Fritzbox have this fax to email feature.
A signed fax has the same legal status like a signed email or a signed letter. But it is easier to sign a fax correctly than an email. Und faster than a letter. (But in some cases only a letter is valid, because it is the only true stuff. In such cases, also a fax is not valid.) A contract can have any medium. In most cases you don't need any written word for a contract. But it is good to have it. In these cases also a postcard or a chat message is a "legal document". Or a checkbox on a internet site. Theoretically also a sheet of toiled paper could be use. But there could be troubles with the seriousness... If someone delivers something to you without being ordered and you tacitly accept it, this is also sufficient for legally binding contract. (But this depends on the situation...) So, no! A fax has not more "legal status" than an email. It is very similar and for the most cases enough. But there are some cases, where you need a paper version. "schriftform" / "written form", but this does not mean the text of the contract, it means that you need the original signature of both signers. In such cases, a fax is not valid and you will may need a notary. In some of these "Schriftform"- cases there is also a mail with a digital signature valid or a "DE-Mail" (which is a special email from an certified provider), but nobody knows about it or how to get it.. 😄 But it is regulated by a law with one of the best names: "DE-Mail-Gesetz" 😄 (Normally german laws have very long and complex names. I.e. "Gesetz über Rahmenbedingungen für elektronische Signaturen" which is the law for digital signed documents.
Wether it be Android or iOS, almost everybody has Whatsapp. In a 2020 survey 94% said they used WhatsApp on a regular basis. nobody uses SMS anymore or the integrated default apps. I also think its is much more user friendly and just nicer to handle compared to the SMS apps that are installed by default that you use (which wouldnt work anyway here cause SMS is not free)
A good reason to send an SMS (instead of a message in Whatsapp or Telegram etc.) would be if I doubt that the other person is online at the moment, and I want her to see the message ASAP. If the telephone is on and active, but not in the internet, then SMS will be received immediately - but Whatsapp not.
I don't use WhatsApp 😁 I have Trema instead, it's kinda the same. The only difference is that u have to pay 4€ once but they don't rob/share your data. And SMS ist still very usefull sometimes.
It's shocking that they don't use WhatsApp when almost everybody in the world uses it. I communicate with my boss and my clients through WhatsApp, with my friends and family, I don't know what I would do without WhatsApp. And for those who wonder why WhatsApp and not a text message, I don't know in other countries but here for each message you have to pay, you can also make groups, send gifs, images etc. but I think it is useful because everyone has a WhatsApp account
@@Jillberto "Most popular" is the better statement. Calling 25% of population worldwide "almost everybody" is still exaggerated. WeChat has also 1 billion, just by users from china.
@@holger_p Well, you could still say that its the most used Messenger worldwide. OPs Statement is still correct. Eventhough WeChat is popular aswell, it doesnt change the fact that WhatsApp holds first place worldwide.
The smartphone market in europe isn't an almost monopol of apple. And texting/iMessage is only good for apple devices. The normal messaging is quite limited. It sucks with pretty much everything else than plain text. For us it is just normal to have an extra app. It's usually the first app to install on a new phone. Good thing is that it's accessible for almost everyone because it runs on every smartphone equally. Even cheap /old ones. In the US you almost have to have an iPhone. Edit: almost monopol is too strong. I looked up the markest share now and it's "only" roundabout 55%. That leads me to the question: How can americans without an iPhone not use a third party messaging service? I mean normal SMS an MMS is pretty shitty, isn't it?
WhatsApp is also available on Windows PCs (Linux?) - For someone like me with bad eyes and hand size 12.5 this micro-tiny-virtual-keyboards on a smartphone are hell. Its more comfortable to type with an real keyboard the messages 🙂
@@maia6192 interesting. Germany strayed quite far away from Facebook. At least the younger people don't use it anymore. 10 years ago everyone would have used it
@@bloodxcurse101 Same in Switzerland, of my group of friends no one uses facebook, most have an account just so other people can find them if they need to, but it isn't actively used. Here also iphone users use whatsapp (mostly), and most of us use android
@Name No, thats not weird. Apple has a high market share of about 1/4 to 1/3 in germany. iPones are very common here as well, but it is far from over 50% like in the US.
Almost everyone who has friends in other countries uses WhatsApp, also people from the US. Maybe it depends on where you live in the US or how international your work and daily life is.but when you travel a lot and you’re in countries all over the world, you know and use WhatsApp.
Anyone who has clients/business partners in India, Brazil or Europe needs WhatsApp. What did shock me is when I first came to Norway.. WhatsApp is not common here. They use mostly SnapChat. Even for work. My work place does rely heavily on WhatsApp as it's an international company but my husband who works at a Norwegian company has never used it before me. Only FB messenger and SnapChat. I was shocked as in Germany Snapchat is considered dodgy. Though WhatsApp is too tbh. Especially since it's been bought by Facebook/Meta. But due to its high market share and number of users people have no choice but to use it.
SMS feel a bit old-fashioned now, but are also more expensive than Whatsapp messages unless you have a flatrate. I learnt somewhere that many Americans use preinstalled messaging apps on Apple devices, but here Apple has the image of being overpriced (I think that too). Their fans usually pay for the brand, not the device, and you have to be able to afford that to begin with. So most people I know have Android phones.
Pretty much. During my lifetime I had Sony and Apple smartphones until one time I lost my phone and needed a new phone the exact same day so I got a 230$ Huawei phone. Never again going back to Apple or Sony. So not worth it. I feel no difference performance wise and the camera is just as good if not better.
Just visited my parents (countryside Saxony) and I can confirm that the internet in Germany is patchy. I am living in Edinburgh (Scotland UK) and I am used to stream films via Netflix and co. At my parents I noticed how often the videos stopped due to unreliable internet connection. 😪
@@DM-nw5lu For 10 years, I only use Sony. It is a bit overpriced, but not as much as Apple. But hey, it never breaks by itself. I always keep my smartphone for at least 4 years and it always works as fast as at the time I bought it. And I usually get at least 1 android update and many xperia updates and that's not the top phone by Sony. Right now I have Xperia 10 II and I don't intend to change it. Before, I had Xperia XA and it still works even though it fell into bath with sea salt... Although I must say I thought of buying Xiaomi, but my mum has it and I found out I hate the UI...
@@saya-mi I had iPhones constantly breaking for me despite casing and all. The last time I had a Sony was like 10 years ago. It was the first Xperia released by Sony instead of Sony Ericsson (Xperia S). Back then they were a lot cheaper though. Haven't kept up with Sony much. Then I had a couple iPhones until the first Huawei. Had it for 6 years and am now using a Xiaomi that I got very recently. The UI is different but once you're used to it and customise it to your needs (can't even do that with Apple phones) it's pretty neat. I still have an iPhone third gen and that works but Apple discuntinued support. Of course they would. They always do shit to force customers to buy their new overpriced trash. No new iPhone holds up over a decade (12 1/2 years) like my iPhone 3G did.
I assumed WhatsApp was widely known and used. It's preferable to texts because you can also send photos and videos, voice messages & make international phone calls for free - which is invaluable to people like myself who live far away from their family, and to be honest, it's still great for sharing things with people you see regularly. Many workplaces, sports groups etc. also use it because you can create chats with multiple people and that way keep everyone up to date rather than having to text them individually. It seems odd to me that it's not used in America... What do you use instead?
A big advantage of whatapp was its respect for privacy.. the facebook bought it.. i knewwhat that mend.. no facebook on smartphone or it will link whatapp and facebook info for targeted advertising.. Facebook claimed not to fo it.. for 5 whole years, when they had to admit linking it for years.. Thats the most broken thing about capitalism on the internet.. market leaders just buy up good alternatives when they became big enough, to stop any real competition, or slowly hollowing out the differences... We really need a social network and messaging app broadly used were mark zutterburg aint allowed to take a share in..
@@Salzuijust start using sms again, the phone companies stopped using it shamelessly as milk cow, real privacy is WAY better then .. any internet app could provide , i try using more sms, but to long to expensive really made us think internet app for texting:-)
@@JeroenJA SMS isn't private at all. It's transmitted pretty much in plain text and your network provider can read and log everything (as do your regional government agencies, depending on where you are). If you want privacy, you need an app that provably uses end-to-end encryption, with the client being open source so it can be verified. Signal is the easiest one to use that meets that criteria. Whatsapp claims to use end-to-end encryption but their client is closed source so it is impossible to verify.
A few years ago, a lot of RU-vid was actually geoblocked in Germany (up until the end of 2016). All videos that contained music and all VEVO videos (even if they didn't have music in them) were blocked and they didn't even turn up in the RU-vid search. The reason for this was a dispute between Google and GEMA, which licenses music in Germany. Needless to say, I used a VPN before it was cool lol.
I got age restrictions for Donut Operator and Active Self Protection very often. Even if they blurr the bodies 🙄🙄🙄 I want to see one tap shootings. I'm 38 and I proved my existence 2009, when I get my yt account.
@@AlexandraVioletta Yeah same, my account is old enough to officially make an account itself. Meaning I have to be at least 26 if I didn't violate the TOS when when I created it.
Hmm...I was really surprised by the supposed slow internet in germany, because my internet is insanely fast...then he mentioned that Cologne (Köln) had 80% fibre optic cables...And I live in Cologne...So that may be the case 😅 Also, I thought WhatsApp existed everywhere...it's like the main way we text in Germany, we hardly ever use regular texts, since texting using WhatsApp only requires an internet connection and is free otherwise, so no additional costs occur. 🤷🏼♀️ - But yeah, the cookie pop-ups can be annoying, but they are incredibly important and make me feel more comfortable, because I DO want to reject them. So it's important to have the option, and be able to protect oneself.
I live in a 30k people Town in germany and have 400/200 mbits/s. I just testet it and it said 408/206 lol. My internet provider is "Deutsche Glasfaser". I think it is owned by "Telekom", one of the biggest internet provider in germany.
@@MaticTheProto that sucks, i heard storys like that before and i think i am lucky that i never had problems with Telekom. My new internet provider "Deutsche Glasfaser" is still better xD
Many people already wrote about the advantages of messenger Apps like WhatsApp. Another is the ability to do video calls no matter which device the other person owns. And if you are on vacation in a country outside the EU you simply need a moderate Wifi connection to still do video calls or send photos and videos you‘ve taken.
If you want to know why people use WhatsApp in Germany, it started when most kids / teenagers had prepaid cash on their phone, and most people had to pay around 20 cent for each sms. They did however mostly all had a internet Flatrate. So to get around paying for each message they used WhatsApp, which sends messages over the internet so you did not pay anything other than your internet flatrate. Moreover WhatsApp added the ability to see if your friend is online, or even send voice messages. I think another reason is that most people here do not have an iphone but instead use Android phones.
Not really a flatrate. Even today data caps are the norm, and compared to other countries like France or Sweden the caps are fairly low. But one big bonus is that whatsapp uses fairly little data (unless you sent voice messages and videos), so it allows for lots of texts without reaching the cap.
That doesn't answer the question why people didn't continue using established IMs like ICQ or why vastly superior newer services like discord aren't used more. But yes, the central issue is that the lackluster apple devices aren't seen as the standard here. Apple stuff is fine for people who want to use their devices only to a fraction of their capabilities and are fine with being extremely gagged by the manufacturers and are fine with paying more for that than necessary. Older people, people without any technological knowledge or interest, fanboys and similar. Sadly Android and most manufacturers are following apple like zombies and nowadays one has to search to even find android devices that aren't pretty crappy.
@@beageler ICQ has always been shit and discord is an OK VoIP application (certainly an improvement over teamspeak), but it's not at all usable as a messenger.
Also a German here, living in a small village of 500 people 30 minutes away from any city and i have 250/40 internet and it is also delivered. Regarding Cooky banner, it is important for me to select if i give consent or not because of privacy concerns. If they are annoying then there are browser extension for firefox and chromium-base which always will accept or decline them automatically.
@@SD-ed8is Aktuell verwende ich das Addon "Consent O Matic". Das braucht noch etwas Zeit um mehr Webseiten zu unterstützen funktioniert aber ansonsten sehr gut. Falls dir cookies wirklich egal sind (im Sinne von alle annehmen) und du zu Avast keine starke Meinung hast ist "I don't care about cookies" schon lange vorhanden und funktioniert gut.
With very few exceptions ("those up there are spying on me" guys), everyone uses WhatsApp. From the beginning, it was cross-platform, and normally you don't even ask, if he/she uses WhatsApp. Even iPhone owners use it and don't care about iMessage, as you would have to switch between the apps all the time, depending on whether the other is using an iPhone or Android device.
In my opnion: One should not (neccessarily) mix up "the internet" VS "the state of digitalisation of society" As an example of Geoblocking. If I wanted to watch a on-demand stream of content from a certain U.S. network (a popular TV show for example), I may be denied access for playing that video. Just because I am not located in the U.S. but in Germany IP wise.
It's the other way around too. Many US music videos are blocked in Germany, because RU-vid would have to pay GEMA (artist compensation) for playing them.
Correct. It also makes no sense to confuse Internet connection with Wifi or Wifi and free public Wifi. I pay my ISP for a 175/40 Mbit connection, because the officially cannot offer a higher speed at my location, but what I get is usually more than 200/40 Mbit. The speed of people Wifi of course depends on the the Wifi equipment they buy, hof they distribute it , on the physical properties of their house. etc. Free public Wifi is a other story again. This was for a long time twarted by german laws which until some years ago made everyone providing wifi responsible for any abuse. If someone for example provided copyright protected material via a wifi, the owner of the wifi could be hold responsible even if someone else used his wifi. Meanhwile thois law was changed, but nowadays public wifi gets less and less important, because most people use mobile data connection via their smartphnes, tablets etc.
The average internet speed is also a pretty bad incdicator of the general Internet distribution: If 1 out if 10 people has a Gigabit Connection, while the other 9 have no Internet at all, the average Internet is 100Mbit ...
@@Psi-Storm The conflict aka negotiations between RU-vid and the German "Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights" (GEMA) ended 2016 since then No music videos are blocked anymore (because of GEMA) - Sorry this is 5 Years ago and you didn't recognized it?
In Croatia we use Whatsapp and Viber. I prefer Viber because it is more fun to use in my opinion. My whole family use Iphones, but we never use Imessage.
I'm in the UK and use WhatsApp all the time, I've tried for years to get my Australian relations to get it, and they tell me it's unheard of in OZ and are "scared" to download it. So we just keep paying the phone bills.
@@acd1202 - I too am in the UK - Many of my relatives live in Canada (including two sisters) and all of us use WhatsApp to communicate and call each other often for free... Sad that you can't get your relatives to use it !
It’s actually mind blowing every time, that people wouldn’t use WhatsApp on other parts of the worlds. But also we had an exchange student from Korea and they asked me for my Kakao and with my friends in Japan I use Line. And I remember back in the days, when my extended family (mostly living in Belgium and France) bullied me into downloading Viber (feels like that one died down, lol). Texting is really quite different depending on your country.
As a German, living in a small 2000 people village, I have stable 250/40. my parents with next neighbours in >200m away have fibre with gigabits of internet possible 😅
Currently we get around 80/40 vdsl in a 300 people village, but next year we get fiber with 500/100 or even 1Gb if you order a business account. The German average internet speed is skewed upwards due to the cable tv offers with up to "500 Mbit". Everyone who could sign up for it basically pulls up 4 other households 16 mbit internet to over 100mbit average.
I have good internet most of the time (it cuts out a lot though), but some of the neighboring villages have the WORST wifi. The fastest speed they can get doesn't allow them to even stream. In 2022. They also get ZERO phone signal, so no mobile data either. They're set to get fibre optics soon-ish though.
If you have any questions burning on your tongue, we, as the community, would love to answer them. ( I believe we do).Oh and Moin to all Germans and non-German from the Northside of Germany ✌🏻
Hey Ryan, it's recommended to not do speed tests while using your download capacity, like when you're buffering videos von RU-vid. Maybe try it again when you're not using the internet, or even when your computer is turned off. Also, regarding WhatsApp (and other apps like Telegram): I recommend watching the video "Blue Bubbles vs Green Bubbles: Explained!" by Marques Brownlee. It does a really good job at explaining the international differences.
Im in Australia, and I use whats app to talk to my friends overseas, and when I was travelling (precovid) to Hong Kong, I could call home for free using my own phone
One problem why fax machines are still widely used in Germany is also the German jurisdiction in courts: Many formal letters to authorities are considered invalid if they are sent digitally/online etc. and not sent by post, fax or delivered in person. Even we Germans have been making fun of this for a long time. But the judges and the authorities in particular still live in the digital stone age in many cases.
@@MrReachashish As long as you can easily fake emails, this is hardly the right way. Paper consumption in the USA is more than three times as high as in Germany and the recycling rate in Germany is 79% and thus higher than in the USA.
@@GettingNervous manipulating a fax is very much possible, just not widely known. Fax is not encrypted or signed at all. Man in the middle attacks are possible, especially with access to the physical wires. (Just open up a "construction site" down the road on the sidewalk - probably nobody will ask questions). While VOIP makes it a bit harder, its far from impossible. Try to manipulate a signed e-mail though... Thats actually cryptographically verifyable.
@@kennichdendenn If you open up a construction site, you have to know which wire you need and you have to be there. And as long as certificates can be stolen, signed e-mails are not secure either. The is no 100% security, but it makes a difference to attack a local wire or attack from Nigeria via internet I don't think that a potential attacker would travel to Germany and dig holes all over the street to get any data.
with whatsapp belonging to facebook i really thought america would use it too. as a side note, next to whatsapp there is also signal and telegram as reasonably popular messenger apps in germany. also, i remember a billboard advertising the "new super fast 4g mobile data", where when looking at the data volume and the speed, they did advertise 8 seconds of super fast internet each month.
@@CabinFever52it did not used to.. facebook saw almost no eu use of there app, and they bought what app we did use.. oh and lying for years they would not connect data of both gor targeted adds.. i never installed facebook on my phone, do they vould never link both my datas , got a special facebook registration email too for a fuck your desrespect for privicy facebook, why didn't google circles get more initial users so an alternative would really exist?
I do not think that the computers are outdated here in Germany but yes they stick to the old fashion way like working very much with papers. The want to move and have real physical work (that is what I observed).Take note, Germany is more on saving, saving saving and saving!
As someone who had worked for Germany's first commercial ISP from 1993, the infrastructure development is truely glacial. And that only became apparent to people and politicians with the Covid crisis when everyone was forced to stay home during lockdown.
Here in the Netherlands, I get 397 MBps download and 38 MBps upload. I am still amazed that Americans don't use WhatsApp. You can call, text, group text, and group call for free no matter which device. It uses WiFi and is cost-free.
There is geoblocking from US sites in Germany. I use a VPN to get onto US sites. I live in a rural area in Germany. Our Internet is OK. It is difficult to stream different content from more than one device. But we just signed up for fibre optics so it should be better soon.
Denmark here… I love their channel cause they do really good background check too… About internet speed - I pay for a 100/100 and are closer to 120 each way. In Denmark they aren´t allowed to announce up to xxxx. They have to deliver at least.
WhatsApp and similar services are very popular because they are not limited to a specific operating system like iMessage and FaceTime. You can send texts, make phone calls, have video calls using these services. Moreover, they work across country borders (very useful in Europe) and you don‘t have to pay for international calls. But some people in the US have WhatsApp. My brother in Texas has it, and it‘s how we communicate because he is Android and I am iPhone. Without WhatsApp, no phone calls or video calls unless you have a phone plan that includes international calls (I do, but only because I have family in the US).
Google results showing the whole article or make viewing the original webpage the article is nested are not allowed in Europe, or, more specific, Google has to pay for it. Text and articles written by journalists, etc. are not for free. I could write a book about it ~lol~ maybe, when I find some time I send you an email explaining the whole thing... :)
21:14 the only thing one needs to rise up against is not to let them willfully steal your information and sell it but against google putting the content of websites on google already and therefore stealing the ad revenue from these websites. nothing of what you find so convenient is actually something thats considered a good thing by many. the majority who still does think of it as a good thing quickly changes their mind once youve told them what that is actually about
Poland here: everyone uses Facebook messenger for calling or texting but WhatsApp is also known especially when you travel to other European countries. SMS isn’t really used anymore
We use WhatsApp because an SMS costed like 3 cents or something. The providers were too slow to catch up with pricing so people just didn't use SMS for texting and used other apps instead. And the Germans are sparfüchse and WhatsApp came as a semi free service then was bought by Facebook and was established as standard and is completely free. While there are other apps around like telegram and line in Germany people just generally decided to use WhatsApp. And even now an SMS costs like 1,5 cents or something? contracts provide some free smses but even 200 won't be enough for most people and then it will get expensive.
In Shanghai we had 1000 SMS free.... but I never used it... I am not used to write SMS... I guess abroad they don't charge you as much for SMS like in Germany...
Then German phone contracts must be pretty bad. In Poland, where I live, almost every contract since quite a few years includes unlimited SMS, MMS and phone calls within the country (sometimes calls limited only to mobile phones, not including landline ones, but for example my provider includes landline phones too in all contracts). Usually, only the data plans are different between various providers and tarriffs. So people here actually do use SMS quite a lot. But they also use WhatsApp for international messaging, as you still do have to pay for out-of-country SMS or calls.
iMessage and FaceTime are NOT the norm, because those are Apple services, so they are specific to iPhone users. In Austria, where I live, Apple has 26% of the market. So if you use iMessage, 75% of your friends will be out of reach. Plus Whatsapp has many additional features.
German here. Yes wifi/broadband can suck a lot depending where you live but the bigger issue is mobile data. I live in a bigger city so I do get 4g. My parents live in a small village/ town and the get 3g with some luck but it's mostly e. When they were in Thailand they had 4g in the middle of nowhere
6:29 be grateful for that speed. My internet ranges from 20mb/s to 40kb/s. Not a typo, kilobits. Not bytes, bits. It literally drops BELOW 1ST GEN INTERNET (A byte is 8x higher, a bit is just one Binary digit (wich it’s short for: Bi-nary Digi-t) that can store 1 piece of information at once (0 or 1), while a byte is 8 bits and can store up to 255 pieces of information (example for numbers: 00000000 is 0, 00000001 is 1, 00000010 is 2, 00000011 is 3…)
PassportTwo do so good content. Donnie is really very dedicated to do proper research. The animations are also gorgeous. Definetly one of the best channels for Germany related content. I'm happy you subscribed.
For quite some time a lot of music videos on RU-vid were geoblocked in Germany due to distribution rights discussions (gema). Clicking on the Gangnam style music video just opend up a blacked "Video"/picture telling you that due to right issues the music video is not available in your country. So of all the views making gangnam style the most watched music video of all time ten years ago and kept it here for quite a few years, nearly none were from Germany.
I'm living in Germany and in my region the "Deutsche Glasfaser" (=German fiber optics) is planning to lay fiber optics in every Town and Village in my region. My current speedtest is: Download: 56.31 Mbps Upload: 10.63Mbps and Ping: 10ms
I live in a student dorm in Germany where we share 3 rooms+bathroom, and actually only one of the rooms gets the dorm wifi. The Vodafone internet for my phone (contract) doesn't have any access inside the apartment or any neighbouring apartmens, but opening a window and standing next to it helps. Must be the walls. It's in the city, so generally the speed is not bad, but it is very common to be out of internet for a few minutes or even some hours or up to 2 days. So it's more a question of stability than quality from my experience. For houses in villages it depends on which cables are there, can be anything from nothing to good, but internet connection to phones is also difficult sometimes. For example if you are 1 km outside of a city's borders between the fields and such, often no connnection, or while being on the train between two cities, usually no connection at all, so you can spend 2-3 h train rides without internet connection.
I hate that in my country streaming services except Netflix and Hbo are blocked. Like, you are telling me I am willing to pay you to see the content but you won’t except my euros...why? Can someone smart explain it. I know I can get Vpn but I wonder why they block it in the first place. So I go to Pirate bay.
It is not that they don't *want* to accept your euros, they are simply not allowed to because they don't have bought the necessary content distribution licenses for your country. A bunch of laws that originated for tv are beeing applied to streaming, if it makes sense or not. It is what it is because noone wants to make new laws specifically for it so tv laws have to suffice. Funfact: While you using a vpn to watch other countrys content is not illegal (in most cases), them showing it to you technically is. If you watch something with vpn, the streaming services break the law by showing you something they are not allowed to show you. They handwave and say "oh no, whatever will we do, we got tricked and had no way of knowing." as an excuse to not have to pay fines, and really, how *would* they or anyone know, thats the point of vpn, but they are also not interested in knowing because they want to sell you stuff if they can no matter where you are. But can't do so when you waltz on they servers announcing where you are from. That would be too obvious and get them into trouble.
Thanks for taking the time to explain it guys. It just seems awkward that the corporations wouldn’t be incentivized to somehow change the laws to work for them in order to get new markets and earn more profit.
You basically have a internet connection everywhere in germany. It can get slow as shit though. My parents still have 16Mbit/s because they live in a small village. I lived in quite a few cities all over germany by now and my connection was never slower than 100Mbit/s. BTW I always find it quite amusing that the US is such a technological country but still uses SMS for texting haha But thats probably due to the fact that SMS isn't always free here (mostly but not always)
It's really sad that lazy development has shifted perspectives on speed so out of whack. My provider throttles speed down to original DSL levels when the data limit is reached. And that speed, which was blindingly fast twenty years ago and is enough for practically everything but video streaming is slow enough that plenty of apps say that there is no internet connection. If developers wouldn't waste bandwidth 8and storage space for that matter) that would be quite different.
Yeah i live in a village in germany and only recently got 16Mbit/s and even that was a huge change for me cause i used to have a 7000kbit/s Connection that roughly translates into 7Mbit/s if i remember correctly
IMHO it would be quite "techno-illogical" to end a reliable service (SMS) that does exactly what it's supposed to do. Nothing more, nothing less, low complexity, high compatibility, no fancy features.
Internet in germany is HORRIBLE. In some parts (even in cities) you can count yourself lucky if you get 100mbps. And then it costs like 45-50€ per month. I'm so glad about the internet where I live. I moved close to my uni and live in something similar, but not really to a student dorm. Its a collection of apartment buildings that only allow students. Its still absolutely normal apartments with a kitchen, bathroom and so on, the only restriction is the fact that its only for students. The internet here is awesome. Its made available by a "Verein" (along the lines of an "association") and is basically the outside connection of the university network. I say "outside connection" specifically, because it doesn't have any content filter or anything else that the network inside the university has. I pay 30€ per semester and get 1gbps up and down AND if my PC could handle it I can get that upped to 10gbps up and down for no additional cost. The Verein is non-profit and run mostly by computer science students as volunteer work. Instead, they use this chance to get some experience in the IT field and are allowed to spend the (not particularly much) money on new projects as long as they leave enough for maintenance of the network.
I am German and I have to say that the Internet in Germany is not slow at all in many places. In my home village, which is not close to a city, we have a download of 250 mbs without a fiber optic connection 😂
then you are lucky. i live in stuttgart and am lucky to have 100/5. my friends 100m away from me have 50/10, not more is possible. so more upload but less download. the parents of my ex-wife live in a smal town and there is only realy slow realy expensive internet provided wireless by a smal local company. germany is probably one of the worst countries worldwide regarding to internet. every smal developing countriy has fast glass fibre internet since 20 years ^^
Living in quite a rural area of Germany, and my download speed is 200 Mbps, upload 8.7 Mbps. That's a middle price offer, could pay more, then it would be 1000 Mpbs download speed and up to 50 Mbps upload. Guess it really depends on how much you want to pay.
As a Swede I am always shocked that almost every country uses WhatsApp. It is barely used in Sweden, since most use Facebook Messenger or Snapchat instead.
As a German who lived in Sweden this annoyed me there - hadn't used Snapchat before Sweden, but it was the only way to connect with people besides Facebook - and Facebook in Germany is only for old people; you just don't want to have an account there lol
22:25 why would you have to pay? Oh wait he can’t see this. Guys go comment this on his channel 22:30 yeah no. 22:38 i’m sorry what? Could you imagine the long distance texts and calls and international texting calling fees you would receive? I know you can’t do anything about healthcare, but you can *_choose this!_*
Nahh, they were there when people thought IMs were a new thing, and the established ones couldn't get out of their slumber fast enough. A slumber they were in because people had forgotten IMs had been a thing for years. True, ICQ was dead from being diletantly comercialised, but Trillian and Pidgin and Miranda and others were just too slow.
@@beageler Sorry, i had only phones in mind. Allthough ,Trillian, Pidgin and the others we're, at least among my family and friends, not established across people over 40.
@@MrFlo5787 That's why I said they were too slow. Actually the apps for smart phones didn't come out that late, but they missed out on the hype. I used SIM on my first smartphone without any problem, but after a while I just had to accept that many people just wouldn't use anything besides whattsapp on their phone.
just for context, I live in Germany for almost 2 years now.. I paid 40€ monthly (now 20€) for on paper 100mbps Internet. In reality I get 50 on average and outages are not rare (City), oh yes also dsl net because why not
the reason why we dont use instant messages is that not everybody has an iphone, you need one app that is used by android and apple phones. whatsapp is pretty bad these days but was groundbreaking back in the 2010s. SMS are really outdated and limited, you cant send proper images or videos with that and is also pretty expensive.
Dude i thought my German internet is crap but I got 75mbps download and 33 upload And when I do it with LTE I get 170 download and 20 upload ??? Weird I guess
I am also germann we live in a small 2000 people city and we have 435mbs down and 20mbs up but we could have gigabit. But a friend of mine just about 300 meters away only has 5mbit down and 1mbit up because the networkcables are about 35jears old.
22:35 It's because the texting is not free here and never was. One SMS is only a couple characters (140 or so), using diacritics and emojis takes lot of that space, leaving you with even less characters, or they will bill you for multiple SMS, even if it's just one. I text only when it's something important or urgent and/or the other person doesn't have any texting app or internet connection - and lot of people doesn't, especially older people. 🙂
To be fair, nowadays SMS are included in most data plans, but people just don't use them anymore, because why would they? Whatsapp has more features anyway, you can't send stickers or gifs via SMS lol
@@leDespicable some people don't want to be Meta customers... and I totally understand that. My father owns a smartphone and pays for an internet plan. But regarding messengers, he's like "Why would I need more than text? For everything else just use e-mail."
The US government and banks, insurance websites blocks access from abroad. For us (non-US) it doesn´t matter, but for US citizen who migrate/visit other countries it can be quite a surprise when they can´t access their accounts.
WhatsApp is in every mobile phone accross Europe. Video call for free, etcetera. Again, usa is really messed up. And i pay 5 euro month for my mobile phone plane.
There is a bit of manipulation for the sake of having a more dramaatic video going on here. On the website he shows the standard way of measuring is by "Median Internet speed" and he deliberatly had to click on "Mean Internet Speed". Of course Median Internet Speed makes more sense though. If we look at the Median Internet Speed of the examples he gave than the USA has 62 Mbps and Germany has 54 Mbps and therfor there is much less difference and much less of a headline all of a sudden.
Oh hi, we got that cookie law because we wanted more options on privacy. So no, even though clicking is annoying, i still know people that simply dont open sites or install apps, that want their cookies. Me, I sometimes go and click on specify options, in order to uncheck all data collection except the ones necessary to show the site properly. If the annyoing Pop-up wasnt there i would be happy. They should just straightforward give us the option to not accept…
I think Donnie made a big mistake. WiFi speed have nothing to do with the internet speed. The WiFi speed depends in the router you have bought and the device you use with this router. So if you have the best internet connection don't ruin it with a bad router. And on the other hand you need a cable connection to your router to get a great internet speed. I don't have to complain on my internet connection. I have internet by TV cable with 100MBit with telephone flatrate and pay about 21 Euro - thats about something the same in US$.
Easiest example of geoblocking is on youtube belive it or not "This video is unavailable in your country" it used to happen with musikvideos all the time in the early 2010's
The main reason why Germany is lagging behind with network expansion is probably the different standard of the infrastructure. While in other countries a fiber optic cable is simply nailed to a wooden mast, in Germany the lines are laid invisibly underground. It costs.
i have 2 laptops, one for school, one for home, standing right next to each other, my school laptop has about 10 Mbps and my home laptop around 1 Mbps, so yeah my internet sucks! with my home laptop i can barely do anything
it seems absolutely insane to me that americans won´t use what´s app. you got email, text, sms, foto, video, chat, groups and even more stuff working parallel. so you actually can skip all other platforms and do everything here in one.
I live in an 800 people village here in Germany and we got Fiberoptic Cable recently before that i had around 125mbit/sec but can remember the kbit times
Many germans love the cookie setting pop up. I’m not one of those because I simply don’t care, but I know many who refuse to agree and they rather take 5 min of their time and deactivate every single cookie they can un-check
I live in Germany and the internet is soooooo slow i hate it! (edit: My Internet is in comparison pretty fast but it's unstable and if it breaks down, I can literally not even load the RU-vid start page)
the cookie thing is for you to agree to have them install third party things on your computer that track everything you do. so they get your data and can use/sell it. basically every website has it here and i always make sure to not agree. if there is no option to agree/reject then i can only imagine that they are allowed to install everything they want onto your computer without having to ask you.
"why can’t europes richest country get up to speed?" yall can’t tell me that germany is the richest country in europe like fr we don’t have nothin. even better when compared to monaco or monte carlo
2:04 - you can experience geo blocked websites pretty easily if you live in the US. Just try to use the VoD-Service of the 1. german television (ARD). You will be blocked for many shows because you try to stream it from outside of germany. It´s just a licencing thing.
I'm in Germany, and I pay 40 Euro/month for gigabit internet. Generally my wifi speed is about 600Mb/s, but still, pretty solid. Also, I have really solid 5G connection with my phone (also around $40/month for unlimited 5G). So my experience is that it's a lot faster and cheaper. As for geo-blocked websites, that's easy enough to get around with a VPN, but certainly annoying sometimes. However, things like everyone using WhatsApp is one of the things I absolutely love over here, it makes texting/calling so much better.
I wanna give some information about the what's app comment you gave (22:40) I live in Belgium and we use it alot too. The reason is why we use it over texting. When you don't have a subscription, you use paid cards. Prices can very due to the amount you get. What'sApp is mostly included separate like Facebook and/or youtube (i think snapchat is included as well). It doesn't take data from your card or subscription and you don't have to pay for it. Just simple as that. It's free, it's easy and user friendly plus not linked any platform like android or apple or windows. Texting costs money and drains the budget really quickly, so would u use something that is free and no data loss or would you use something you pay for ?
I should add something about the consent banner/GDPR/DSGVO, as I don't even see it in the comments: This banner appears mainly when you visit a site for the first time - once you consented (or not, besides the mandatory stuff) you won't see this banner anymore, or at least not for quite some time (some sites need updated consent after some time perhaps). So it's not that annoying for everyday use, but can get annoying when you're researching something and visiting lots of sites you don't normally visit. I for example don't think I ever get it for Google & RU-vid (and many other sites I'm using frequently), I mostly come across it when I'm using these sites in Incognito for example, where there won't be any cookies or the like stored, so the site doesn't know that you consented to it.
Inspired by your speedtest, I just checked what speed I have... I live in Poland, and internet is quite good here. Actually, I didn't even know what speed I bought or how and when they upgraded my line. Long story short - I got 414Mbps download, 58Mbps upload. Of wi-fi 😃
I am from germany, and while i have pretty good WiFi now, a few years back, i couldn't even watch RU-vid videos above 360p without lags, but it really depends on how much you're spending, and most people i know have pretty good internet
