# Popular websites started outside the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362 "2010-03-30T18:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/1 "2010-03-30T18:48:07Z")
Not counting news sites such as BBC, are there any very big name/popular websites that started outside the US? I guess there are, I just can’t name any. I mean sites such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon, iTunes, etc. Search engines, email sites, stores, etc. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/2 "2010-03-30T18:49:44Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Not counting news sites such as BBC, are there any very big name/popular websites that started outside the US? I guess there are, I just can’t name any. > > I mean sites such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon, iTunes, etc. Search engines, email sites, stores, etc. Do you mean “popular in the U.S.”? There are certainly Chinese web sites which are popular in China (for instance). ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/3 "2010-03-30T18:50:51Z")
I guess I mean popular all over the world but I should add sites in English is what I am looking for. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/4 "2010-03-30T19:00:07Z")
Asking for further clarification: this means sites catering to an international audience, right? - Pirate Bay - Sweden - popurls - Germany ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/5 "2010-03-30T19:01:04Z")
Skype would be one. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/6 "2010-03-30T19:05:26Z")
Flickr started in Canada. (The company and site are now owned by Yahoo!.) ---
**Author:** ![kenner116](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@kenner116](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenner116)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/7 "2010-03-30T19:07:06Z")
[Chatroulette.com](http://Chatroulette.com) started in Moscow. Panoramio in Spain. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/8 "2010-03-30T19:08:32Z")
Yes, catering to anyone in the world. I am not interested in illegal sites. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/9 "2010-03-30T19:10:25Z")
How popular? I like [http://b3ta.com/](http://b3ta.com/) (UK, probably not 100% SFW, especially the top picture on the current front page) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/10 "2010-03-30T19:18:51Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Popular websites started outside the US. > [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Not counting news sites such as BBC > [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I guess I mean popular all over the world but I should add sites in English is what I am looking for. > [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I am not interested in illegal sites. You are narrowing this down a bit! Ummm, Last.fm, Rapidshare? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/11 "2010-03-30T19:20:30Z")
imdb started in Wales ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/12 "2010-03-30T19:22:52Z")
I should have put the extra restrictions in my first post, just did not think of them until someone asked. I’m just curious about sites started outside the US that Americans use because I realized I don’t use any non-US sites (that I know of). ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/13 "2010-03-30T19:54:06Z")
[Allofmp3.com](http://Allofmp3.com), which was legal, and then made illegal, and shut down. Russian. ---
**Author:** ![Terra1041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Terra1041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terra1041)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/14 "2010-03-30T20:16:01Z")
I wonder why the USA seems to usually be the default country. Like, the US version of a Web site is uaually .com and not .us, Google for instance has no immediately-accessible option for returning US results but they have similar options for most other countries, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/15 "2010-03-30T20:28:35Z")
For the geeks: Dinosaur Comics are written by a Canadian. The Register, based in the UK, is fairly popular. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/16 "2010-03-30T20:30:48Z")
> [@Terra1041](#): > > I wonder why the USA seems to usually be the default country. Like, the US version of a Web site is uaually .com and not .us, Google for instance has no immediately-accessible option for returning US results but they have similar options for most other countries, etc. I guess because most of the big websites were started in the US. On my phone Google finds out where I am via GPS but I don’t know if they do that on a regular PC. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/17 "2010-03-30T20:34:39Z")
> [@Terra1041](#): > > I wonder why the USA seems to usually be the default country. Like, the US version of a Web site is uaually .com and not .us, Google for instance has no immediately-accessible option for returning US results but they have similar options for most other countries, etc. Good .com domains were snapped up by early adopters (.co.uk similarly so, but that tld convention didn’t work out as well in the long run). I’m not sure what you mean about Google - every non-US Google domain I’ve ever used has a “Go to [Google.com](http://Google.com)” link on the home page. ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/18 "2010-03-30T20:38:20Z")
For Google, if you go to [Google](http://www.google.com/ncr) instead of just [http://www.google.com/](http://www.google.com/), it will prevent the country specific redirect and allow you to get to the US-based site from anywhere in the world. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/19 "2010-03-30T20:49:37Z")
> [@Waffle\_Decider](#): > > Dinosaur Comics are written by a Canadian. . IP is 208.122.50.173, which is based in the US. > [@](#): > > The Register, based in the UK, is fairly popular. IP is 72.3.246.59, which is based in the US. 😃 I’m curious about those sites that are internationally popular among more than a small niche crowd (e.g. Web comics) that are actually hosted outside of the United States. The only one I can think of off the top of my hand that meets the criteria of the OP is [popurls](http://popurls.com/) at 87.230.55.42 in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362/20 "2010-03-30T21:02:41Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > . > > IP is 208.122.50.173, which is based in the US. > > IP is 72.3.246.59, which is based in the US. 😃 > > I’m curious about those sites that are internationally popular among more than a small niche crowd (e.g. Web comics) that are actually hosted outside of the United States. The only one I can think of off the top of my hand that meets the criteria of the OP is [popurls](http://popurls.com/) at 87.230.55.42 in Germany. IPs don’t mean a thing with regards to the origin of the site. I just launched the site of a company that is headquartered in Akron, with their European base in Germany, and their IP is out of London. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/popular-websites-started-outside-the-us/534362.md?page=2)