I'm in the UK, and has done quite a bit of work in the payment space, and I've kept seeing this all the time.
On one hand, a lot of US companies just ignore the European markets. On the other hand, a lot of the ones that try demonstrate why:
Assumption after assumption about regulatory regime, languages, culture etc. need to be beaten out of them. When they grasp multiple languages, you can bet a lot of them will get caught out with multiple languages in a single country (this one always confuses me - so many US companies deal with at least Spanish that you'd think more companies would be prepared to deal with this). Then there's inevitably issues around VAT/sales tax, and engineers who don't have the faintest understanding for just how strict handling of invoices are in some European countries (I remember when my dad still had to print out every electronic invoice he issued and glue them in on numbered pages in a book to satisfy the auditors - thankfully things have moved on somewhat, but US engineers: Stop making systems where invoices can even theoretically be mutable after issuing already, and you'll be vastly better placed for international markets).
> so many US companies deal with at least Spanish that you'd think more companies would be prepared to deal with this
Actually it's the opposite - inside the US, Spanish-speaking markets are mostly served by companies that only serve those markets and not the English speaking ones.
I'm in the UK, and has done quite a bit of work in the payment space, and I've kept seeing this all the time.
On one hand, a lot of US companies just ignore the European markets. On the other hand, a lot of the ones that try demonstrate why:
Assumption after assumption about regulatory regime, languages, culture etc. need to be beaten out of them. When they grasp multiple languages, you can bet a lot of them will get caught out with multiple languages in a single country (this one always confuses me - so many US companies deal with at least Spanish that you'd think more companies would be prepared to deal with this). Then there's inevitably issues around VAT/sales tax, and engineers who don't have the faintest understanding for just how strict handling of invoices are in some European countries (I remember when my dad still had to print out every electronic invoice he issued and glue them in on numbered pages in a book to satisfy the auditors - thankfully things have moved on somewhat, but US engineers: Stop making systems where invoices can even theoretically be mutable after issuing already, and you'll be vastly better placed for international markets).