If not to the Valley, then where: where Kazakh products are truly needed

Askar Aytov, city — Almaty, Tech Reviewer, founder of Devs.kz, information systems, digital economy, AI and product engineering, 17 years of experience at the intersection of IT, business, and government structures in Central Asia and MENA

In my previous article, I offered an unpleasant but honest thought: San Francisco doesn’t work for us. Not because we are “not smart enough” or “not trying hard enough,” but because the context is different. The economy, capital, labor market, and regulation are all different.

But after the publication, the question I was asked most often was: “We’re not going to Silicon Valley. So where should Kazakh IT go at all?”

At this point, the conversation usually stops. We criticize the old model but fail to formulate a new one. And without a new model, any “digital development” turns into a report for the ministry or yet another startup pitch without customers.

In my opinion, the West is not our mass market. And perhaps it never was. In Kazakh IT, there still lives a strange mantra: if the product is good — it will be bought in the US or Europe. It sounds inspiring. But let’s drop the romance.

Today, the US and EU markets are:

— thousands of funded startups with access to capital
— dozens of BigTech platforms that instantly copy functionality
— extremely complex regulation — GDPR, AI Act, compliance, security
— long and expensive sales cycles.

For a startup from Kazakhstan, entering these markets means years of life without revenue. And as I remind you, we don’t have “long” money. We cannot afford to burn cash for an abstract product-market fit. As a result, a familiar scenario unfolds:

— the product is built “to Western standards”
— the first customers don’t come
— the team burns out
— the startup either dies or pivots to outsourcing.

And this is not the founder’s failure. It is a mistake in choosing the market. The invisible market is right next to us. At the same time, there is a paradox that is rarely discussed. While we dream of San Francisco, markets where our product is understandable, needed, and sellable are right next to us. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, the Caucasus, and parts of the Middle East.

Countries with similar regulation, a similar level of digital maturity, the same budget constraints, and the same “imperfect” business processes. And most importantly — there is no surplus of ready-made solutions there. Western products either don’t reach them, or are too expensive, or are not adapted to local realities. And Chinese products are often closed and poorly scalable outside their own ecosystem.

Export that already exists. Kazakh IT companies already:

— supply banking and payment systems to Tajikistan
— implement corporate platforms in Uzbekistan
— help digitize government services and the quasi-public sector.

But this happens quietly. Without startup conferences, without loud press releases, and without the word “unicorn.” Why? Because this is engineering work, not venture storytelling. And this, by the way, is our real advantage.

Why “South → South” works better than “South → West.”

There is a simple reason why Kazakh solutions are easier to adopt in developing countries. We understand:

— how regulation works
— why businesses dislike complex processes
— why an “ideal” solution is often worse than a “working” one
— what real constraints look like — in terms of personnel, budget, and infrastructure.

A Western product often assumes that:

— processes are already established
— data is clean
— users are disciplined
— infrastructure is stable.

In our conditions, this is not the case. And that is exactly why locally designed systems work better. An important point: this is not an article “against AI.” On the contrary. AI is the only thing that makes this export scalable. But not in the format of “let’s make another chatbot.” But in the format of:

— AI for internal bank automation
— AI for processing documents and applications
— AI assistants for operators, accountants, lawyers
— AI as part of ERP and govtech, not as a separate product.

We have asked ourselves for too long: “How do we become like them?” In 2026, we can ask a different question: “Who can we really be useful to — right now?” The answer is not across the ocean. It is in countries that live under the same constraints as we do. To be continued.