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Ask HN: Is it still worth manufacturing anything in your country after Alibaba?

2 pointsby zeynalovabout 7 years ago
<i>Background</i><p>After starting to earn a good amount of money as a dentist, I want to stop my own hamster wheel. Although I love my job, I&#x27;m just not into that routine work but creative works, like business, art, marketing etc. something that just makes sense to me, make me able to passively earn enough amount of money to be able to buy time to make those things happen what I find interesting my life.<p><i>Manufacturing goods as a business</i><p>In my opinion, the best way to do that is having a profession where you will always earn money and after that either starting a business or actively investing on stock markets (which is a little bit harder than business).<p>What I find interesting was &quot;manufacturing things in cheap countries with high quality and export goods and sell in expensive countries&quot;. I was thinking about this for 10 years when I was a student at dentistry. I always thought about producing things in European Countries like Ukraine, Georgia (minimal monthly wage monthly only 7$ !) or Azerbaijan, and bringing to Germany to sell them here, where I live. Where most things 100 times more expensive than in Georgia.<p><i>Dropshipping</i><p>After Alibaba came to the market the rules of the game changed. Chinese manufacturers produce literally everything and so cheap that no one has even a chance to compete with them. Business owners even don&#x27;t buy and sell things physically, more and more people just build businesses like playing a bridge role between Chinese sellers to the European buyers buy marketing the goods here, which is called nowadays dropshipping.<p><i>Question</i><p>Is there still any niche or something that worth producing in Europe&#x2F;US and sell in Europe&#x2F;US like in old days? Or should I just let Chinese manufacturers produce the goods cheaply in a given quality and sell it here?<p>I would like to hear opinions if here someone did business similar to this.

2 comments

arnauldkayonga1about 7 years ago
Of course it&#x27;s the best opportunity..because the Chinese also manufacture industrial machines. I&#x27;m from Africa but the the minimal wage here is so afordable and close to be shipping ports...perhaps we can discuss further about this i have also had the same thoughts over the years arnauldkayonga1@gmail.com
ffwacomabout 7 years ago
Artisan or one off prototype goods. I know in Australia it’s cheaper for us to get things manufactured _and_ shipped from China than to purchase the raw materials in Aus. Applies for order qty &gt;100 basically across the board.