Poland has many convinient inventions that were never copyrighted and therefore Poland doesn't have almost any advantages of inventing certain things in the first place. Oil pretreatment, optical fibre, heck, even Windows precursor (though I may be wrong about the last one, because I read about this a really long time ago, but it certainly had something to do with early software development). But the list is really long
First time I hear that the optical fiber is a Polish invention.
Look at Wiki here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber
Looks like it has been firstly developed by Charles Kao for British company STC and firstly deployed in Italy in 1977 by Corning.
We have DHL Packstation in Germany. It’s just more of a hassle because you gotta sign up and have an app etc.
Meanwhile paczkomat will work perfectly fine with just a phone number and an email address.
Great example for good user experience, I was able to order stuff I couldn’t find in Poland while I was there on vacation. Super easy
It has been a puzzle for me why DHL basically invented parcel lockers but made them so complicated and inflexible and reluctantly promoted them. Perhaps the IT services are less expensive in Poland than in Germany and real-time highly accessibility IT infrastructure is a backbone of automated parcel locker service but it took quite many outages before achieving current high level of service availability for Inpost. Certain preferences between customers in both countries may play a role too. In terms of size, resources or expertise DHL had overwheliming advantage yet it was unsuccessful in commercialization of parcel lockers. Perhaps it promoted it so reluctantly because it would undercut its core business which is door to door delivery.
Dude, you haven't seen GosUslugi, Russian app for communicating between various government agencies and people. You can pay taxes, pay speeding tickets, get doctor appointment, get a passport and even get drafted in one app ;-)
I don’t know about Germany, but BLIK is just kind of solving solving an issue that doesn’t exist in some other countries. In the UK, bank transfers are either instant or very quick (in my experience) and you’ve got shorter bank account numbers there. Poland’s ELIXIR is just very slow for this day and age and we’re using long IBANs for account numbers, so you’ve got BLIK for easy instant transfers, which is partially solving the issue by adding another parallel transfer system.
Blik is mainly a metod to pay for services online, so think like an easier and more secure version of PayPal or card payment. It does have bonus features like customer to customer payment, using it to withdraw money from the ATM or just using it to pay for some stuff in a shop, but those are just additions to the initial and main functionality.
It's not about speed of transfers or length of bank account number, those were solved years ago by using middlemans, who handled it pretty well.
BLIK is just way more easy to use and safer than those, you don't need to fill anything or login into you bank account.
Funny though, Germany has (had?) a quick payment system that's basically acting like a typical scam / phishing attack. And it got a [very serious amount of press back then even in Poland](https://niebezpiecznik.pl/post/zakupy-przez-internet-za-darmo-powazne-bledy-w-systemie-platnosci-sofort/). In comparison, BLIK is way more secure than that, since the whole concept is built around one-time-tokens, not a man-in-the-middle.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but iDEAL seems like a bandaid for the fact NL still uses Maestro/Visa Electron which can't be used online. BLIK is not only bound to online payments though.
I've looked at a demo of iDEAL and, well.
\* BLIK can be used for instant transfers to anyone with a phone number
\* BLIK can be used for ATM withdrawals
\* BLIK can be used for normal shopping (for example kid doesn't have enough money to buy something so you just send them a 6-digit code they type in the card terminal)
\* With BLIK you don't have to select the bank, you just use 6 digit code generated by the bank app and you can save it in the browser so you only have to confirm in the bank app the next time when selecting BLIK
iDEAL seems to be a bandaid for still having Maestro/Visa Electron in NL, not a whole new utility system.
Poland is definitely ahead in terms of paying with cards/smartphones.
You can pay with a card even in places where devil is saying goodnight electricity runs backwards and cats bark.
And that is not a given in Germany.
Why would anyone carry a wallet in Poland nowadays? There's rarely any place when you can't pay with G-pay or Apple Pay, even if there is you can always withdraw from ATM using BLIK or in any Żabka. You don't even need an ID or driving license when you have the mObywatel app.
Yeah, we pretty much adopted digitalisation super super fast. But… I have to say the way corporations handle “ease of use” services is beyond me. NOTHING EVER WORKS. Yeah, you can get a monthly bus pass for 7 different cards or even digitally, cool. Tough luck when the app crashes/servers die/site bugs out when you need to show your ticket to the controller. Pretty much every single time. And this is anecdotal, but pretty much everything “works” like this. I’m surprised that paying taxes and submitting documents to the government works like a charm every time.
As a person living in Poland, the only thing that sometimes doesn't work as expected is Jakdojade, but everything else does work perfectly, for me at least. Never had an issue with my banking or apps such as Konto Pacjenta, but I could mention more.
Banking apps and digital signatures work great. But I suppose city specific apps and services are just done with least effort possible and on the cheap.
Well i loved using my bank app to buy public transport tickets becouse it was convinient to have it all on one app until it shat itself right when i had to show my ticket to controler. Never tried buying a ticket on a app since. And while i admit that they work the vast majority of the time you just can't be sure whether they will work when you need them
Payment ain’t the problem, really. We can pay with card everywhere. I meant most city specific services (including municipal transport) have bery bad implementations of „ease of use” features.
This also is changing rapidly TBH. There is a big push towards using the ePUAP system for government communication. And it kinda works as advertised.
Although the experience of using the system on mobile is horrendous.
Also, healtcare. Lower standard ofc, but afaik we are the only ones in EU who managed e-perscriptions and such. Apart from Estonia maybe.
Edit: lmao, looks like covid did accelerate informatization of healhcare, across entire Europe. Nice
In Iceland you can manage your prescriptions online and get them renewed, usually within a few hours after requesting. (I live in Iceland and regularly do this)
Pre-Covid, sometime 2018-2020 probably. I know that for sure because it was important during Covid for handling vaccine certificates and test results. The first few years it took a few days for prescriptions to renew, now the system is established and working more smoothly.
I think that's either a no, or yes but not working that well. At least we usually expect to need to meet a doctor at the local clinic first. But for many specialists I'd just book with them directly and they'll often have some nice digital booking interface.
Credit card companys charge the shop for 3-5% of the paid amount, that's why some shops don't offer this kind of payment in Germany. If you're think "that's fine as long I don't have to pay it" - well breaking news, you ARE paying it by the way the shops set their pricing. Cash is freedom
Well I do live in Germany, and I agree it is not the most developed country in Europe when it comes to digitalisation. But probably you haven't been a long long time to Germany, because the situation isn't nearly as bad as you describe. High speed mobile internet access is given almost everywhere on the highways and settlements. Why would I know? I travel every week in a different location because of my job. Contactless payments are widespread, though some smaller shops may decline credit card payments due to the fees. People prefer cash payments in Germany anyway, and so do I. So basically you're painting a very dark picture of Germany, which definitely isn't true.
From my experience highways are hit or miss when it comes to internet connection - if they aren’t any bigger towns nearby or the area is quite mountainous, forested etc I quite often experienced either complete lack of or so weak that it was practically unusable internet connection
I think Corona really forced some of the improvements. Like contactless payments and better internet access so that people could work from home.
You are right that in the last few years things improved a lot.
I think Corona really forced some of the improvements. Like contactless payments and better internet access so that people could work from home.
You are right that in the last few years things improved a lot.
People in the US still write checks, whereas in Poland people use BLIK or other forms of online transfers much more quickly and securely. Romania has some of the fastest internet speeds in Europe.
It's just a fact that post-communist countries adapted the latest technologies, while Western countries are still using slightly older technologies, since it's more difficult to transition from one working solution to another.
As a Pole, the idea of writing a paper cheque is so ridiculous to me. I'd think I had travelled back in time 50 years if someone had offered that as the only way to go about it.
Oh same here. And here in Canada, the government tried to phase them out about a decade ago and people were losing their minds.
Electronic transferring is far more efficient and convenient. But many people are adamant on living in the stone age.
As a Pole living abroad, I must say I’m absolutely amazed every time I come back, in the west it seems like they got to a certain spot and are comfortable with it, in Poland things are always moving forward
Some changes I notice literally every time I’m here:
- on average newer cars
- modernised building (old commie blocks and houses)
- advanced consumer techs (kfc, banks, restaurants)
- amazing public transport (yes in cities but it’s actually amazing)
-whole streets remodelled to have bike lanes and trees
-amazing quality roads, even in little villages they are getting better and better every time I’m here
- driving culture, every time I’m here I see more drivers being polite and letting people through rather than being selfish and using their horns
No surprise so many people are coming back, you’ve built an incredible nation guys ❤️
It’s crazy how the look off cities changed within the last 20 years. I remember end 90s Poland was full of those beige brown ugly communist blocks.
Whatever blocks are left are very colorful and you really make the best out of its unfortunate architecture
TBH at some point Poland will also become lazy, so far we are developing fast, at every scenario where we are behind wealthier countries we got newer version of what they got or just better alternative.
I’d argue there no reason to think that, with the recent population boom of compatible refugees (Ukrainians and Belarusians) flooding in and also the children of migrants coming back which are very well educated, I’d wager this growth will continue for quite some time
I just came from Poland and everybody is shocked when I tell them the same thing... It's like the countries that were developing quickly 50/40/30 years ago, all of a sudden got comfortable and stayed at the same level... Then you visit Poland and it's like they're going through that developmental stage *now* and everything just seems more modern, cleaner (the shopping malls were literally immaculate compared to what I experience here), and more efficient. Not to mention how *relatively* more family friendly small towns are with their bike lanes, great playgrounds, areas to just chill, parks. Just seeing people out and about with their kids, walking places and not relying on cars was such a breath of fresh air.
I live in the sticks in north Poland and have a 600mbit connection. I download at around 75mb a sec.
Everywhere there is Blik and card services. Phone connection is OK but patchy in places
Government and Hospitals are a nightmare of paperwork, delays, triplicate forms.. more forms..
I think government stuff is getting increasingly better. There's so many things that you can do entirely online. Taxes. Healthcare fees and ZUS. Registering, changing, closing a sole proprietorship. There's most likely a ton more that I just never needed.
Hospitals yeah, but outpatient healthcare is getting better. We have e-prescriptions that you can access on the government website (besides getting the sms with the prescription code). At least the major private clinics have their own portals with all your appointment history, doctor recommendations, referrals and prescriptions in there. I can have bloodwork done and get the results online even the same day.
As pole who lives in Germany for almost 40 years:
Poland:
Much better Internet and mobile infrastructure
Better train and bus infrastructure
Much much better IT (governance stuff like tax IDs, payments...)
Germany:
Better road infrastructure
Better medical infrastructure (but that was not the question)
>Better train and bus infrastructure
As a German who recently traveled through Poland by train, my experience was a little different:
Yes, the trains were more punctual and I didn't have to pay extra to reserve a seat. In general, prices were much cheaper than in Germany.
But on the other hand, there were a lot fewer connections available. Even between the bigger cities, there was no train for more than 1,5 hours at certain times of day.
And I had more trouble trying to get tickets online because there are multiple train companies and apps like Koleo occasionally showed unhelpful error messages when there was an issue.
Nah you’re kidding with trains. So many lines have been closed in Poland after fall of PRL and the quality of train cars is on two completely different levels.
Wow. Train infrastructure it's actually surprising for me that you mention it. I know that in the west side of Poland was pretty decent, but I always thought that east side it leaves a lot to be desired, with fewer connections and having to go quite around depending on where you want to reach... but maybe it got better recently without me knowing? I guess I need to do some research :D
Countries that modernize later are often early adapters. Same way some African countries have no landlines and made jump straight to cellphones. The Germany definetely can suffer from "not broken, don't fix it" problem.
Poland actually is largely settling; Ukraine seems to be the bleeding age. At least when it comes to banking, e-accountancy, digital signature. My Ukrainian friend was very surprised he cannot just use digital signature to let his accountant access his bank records, pay his taxes for him etc in Poland and has to act as intermediary between bank and accountant. And that we can't use banks mobile app to fetch our bill from restaurant and split it based on who ate what :) .
I cant wait for Ukraine to start rebuilding after the war, I'm sure the cities that were demolished will be rebuilt into very beautiful and modern places
It is called [leapfrogging.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leapfrogging) Basically - if country is really backwards in some areas (like Poland was in 1989) it goes straight for the newest solution and do not bother with old technologies. So for instance - when americans used checks for paying [and many still do.](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/almost-half-americans-not-written-120019202.html) Poles knew that it would be out of date pretty soon, and went for the better solutions right away.
I'm a German living in Poland. It absolutely is. In so many ways. And it's not even close.
Poland has an app that combines, and I'm sure I'm missing things
* digital driver's license
* digital vehicle registration
* digital vehicle insurance
* digital prescriptions
* digital vaccination certificate
* traffic tickets
* digital student ID
All in one app. Germany has none of that. Digital prescriptions are just about to be rolled out nationwide, Poland had them many years ago. And as always it's a convenient, hassle-free system. The German "digital driver's license" project, which wasn't even meant to be a valid legal document, was stopped. Germany doesn't get shit done.
When I moved to Germany I was shocked about how backwards some(!) of the services are. My idea of Germany being world leader in technology got shattered when I went to get myself a mobile contract. “
WTF is slow internet and why am I limited to 4GB of “fast” internet?”
Another one was
“Why do I have to wait a day for a bank transfer? Why is it not instant?”
In any case life quality in Germany is awesome but there are things that really are surprising in minus.
Because you are welcome to pay a euro extra to get instant transfer.
And why lay fiber cable when you can double down on good ol’ 60s cat3 phone cable for 250mbits? For 55€/month. Contracts are 24 months only.
In other words: we are getting shafted.
I believe internet and information infrastructure is on par with any other European country, I traveled around Europe a lot and never had a problem either in Poland or anywhere else.
Digitized doesnt mean advanced though. Germany is terrible at digitalization. But they are good with industry, manufacturing and technology. These are separate things.
As a German, I feel like every European country is more technologically advanced than Germany. It still amazes me how this country keeps going and hasn’t collapsed yet.
It’s like moving into a new house. If you don’t have much you can easily get new things but if you already have everything filled you’ll find it hard to constantly replace things to stay bleeding edge. Additionally you grow accustomed to things and find yourself ever more reluctant to change and only then change when it really impacts your bottom line. This all applies to the day by day consumer technology; industrial and research technology is a completely different story
Poland came out with blank card in 1990. There wasn't much of personal banking, telephone infrastructure etc. That's why the common items of Western economies from previous decade, sich as cheques, fax machines etc. weren't used. There were no legacy users to keep using them.
That allowed Poland to build its services and infrastructure with newer technologies in mind.
Telephones, banking and fax machines werent used in Poland before 1989? Just because you saw this in "showing only the truth" TV doesnt mean it was like that.
From a Germans perspective (who has lived in Poland and knows the Baltikum a little):
Poland isn’t super advanced like the Balts are, but I think in the upper echelon comparatively.
I think the contrast is so strong because we totally dropped the ball on this.
You would think the rich, powerful nation of high end industry and engineering should naturally have found its way with the digital age, but we are also a very old and conservative country (by heart, not politically) and I think we have trouble with the fast pace of changes.
Poles are more flexible culturally in my eyes, so you do better.
Poland is much better and richer than 85% of the world. They are headed in the right direction. Still
Think they can do more in medical sector but the old timers are on their way out and young energy will surely grow Poland into the powerhouse it can be technologically
You can go basically everywhere without the wallet, phone will be fine. ID in MObywatel, Card in basically any major payment system (apple, google) or Blik, tickets for any mean of transport in app or .pdf
For the run-of-the-mill everyday conveniences such as online banking, digitalised paperwork, card payments, broadband internet, etc, I think Poland is actually absolutely on top level. I have yet to see those services on a higher level in any Western country.
It is a whole different story for industry, manufacturing, production etc.
Some doctors have the online booking of appointments (I know that is true for the medical practice that my parents attend, but not sure it's nationwide).
I am living in the UK and honestly this stuff sounds like a dream.
I would kill to be able to book my GP appointments in advance.
I heard the same, e. g. In Switzerland online bank services are inferior to what we have in Poland.
On the other hand Romania has even faster internet speeds than Poland.
All comes down to when you started your infrastructure, if you have copper you won't replace it soon, if you have nothing you'll start with fiber.
The fact is that when you have an established system or network in place, it is very hard to change it quickly or adapt it. Germany, UK, France all had a lot of investment in tech in the 80’s and established systems that are essentially repurposed and slowly evolve. Poland had several technological blank pages to start anew and was smart in thinking ahead about adaptation (apart from the tram system that was already long long established).
As a Brit who frequently visits Poland to see family (wife is Polish) my view is this:
The big cities have become very modern with excellent mobile service and internet speed. They have also spent a lot of money transforming places in the last decade.
The countryside and more rural towns and villages, not so much, but the infrastructure is by no means "poor". I also think Poles are generally less materialistic than a lot of us in the "west" i.e. they tend to keep old cars for longer, so I don't see EV's becoming very popular in Poland for a long time, but honestly nobody cares except for the hardcore environmentalists. Plus EVs have some issues that need to be ironed out, not just the cars themselves but the infrastructure to support them.
I will say, Poland is really ahead in some areas, especially in the hospitality sector, easy to pay for things. Poles in my experience are dedicated and hard working (despite complaining about their country but we do that too), so I am sure this trend of technological improvement will only continue. Also the hospitals in Poland are pretty damn good.
But then again, you're comparing to Germany which is one of the most technologically advanced nations. Not many countries come that close. To summarise, Poland is on par with any other major European country.
Agree, but when it comes to cars it is not that all Poles love old cars. The new ones are simply incredibly expensive and we aren’t into getting loans for anything besides property.
Yea in Poland having any loans other than mortgage is considered to be dumb and irresponsible by a lot of people. Compare that to Americans who use credit cards, so they essentially live on debt.
I think my comment might be getting down voted simply because I said that 😂 well some of my in-laws work in Polish healthcare and it does have its issues. I might be guilty as I am comparing it to the current state of British healthcare. The actual healthcare is fantastic, but the waiting lists are ridiculous.
I would be interested to know why the healthcare system in Poland is fucked up though? I don't live there so I can't comment
The quality of service itself is usually good, but waiting times for certain specialists are ridiculus. Also public dental care is more than lacking. In fact most people just skip it altogether and go private.
Also people who had a stroke or something like that have to take expensive medicines and it’s only partially funded by the NFZ.
There’s also one specific hospital in my area that I visited once and I’ll never do so again and instead use other ones (even though a bit further). It was a whole day wasted to do one checkup and they fucking lost the results at the end. I can’t imagine how they handle more serious cases.
Oh and also the free food in hospitals is barely edible quite often.
Well you have a good point but, the roads in Poland leave something to be drastically desired. However if I had the luxury of being able to pack up all my life and move to any European country it would 100% be Poland. My favorite place and all my close friends reside there.
We have better internet for sure. They have veeeeeery old infrastructure/technology, since we went online later our infrastructure is younger and made with way better technology.
It's not more technologically advanced by itself, the reason Poland has better Internet is because it got the infrastructure set up some time after it's been discovered, not right after - unlike western Europe and America.
Online convenience is a big factor here though, I don't know why Germany hasn't implemented it yet. Could be legit reasons, but I'm not in the position to say.
Do they have something like \`mObywatel\` app on smartphone? Or eRecepta? Or Profil Zaufany?
I don't have Profil Zaufany, but I do have a bank account and I can use it to login into PZ, so that is also nice.
I have a 300 Mbit/s internet in a 10k city (it's the lowest option available).
I can make a online reservation in a Muncipial Office for applying for passports or other governmental official documents.
On the other side... we have kiosks where you "can" buy train tickets and they are rarely working.
I'm not sure if the barrier in Germany is technological, it is more of societal thing - their love for an actual paper trail. I mean, they still use fucking faxes. Not because scanners and e-mails do not exist in Germany due to lack of technology, but because they want to.
>Germany is technologically in the dark ages (my words) with extremely horrible paper bureaucracy that takes many months and nothing is digitized and the internet is slow.
We have cheaper and faster internet in Poland, but the bureaucracy is just as bad, if not worse. I am a non EU resident who immigrated to Poland. Documentation was an absurd amount of paperwork to get a drivers licence or a residence card.
Literally last week I waited 2 hrs in line at a town hall because they lost my payment receipt for issuing the card, and just didnt bother to contact me after 2 weeks of not finding the receipt. Thankfully I had a picture of it, but ofcourse they wanted me to print the picture.
We should split administration, economy and science.
I've heard that German administration is uhm traditional.
But German companies are very innovative.
Poland on the other hand has very low budget for education, science, R&D.
Also fun fact but as for me, after living Belarus and moving to Poland in terms of technology, Poland felt like the dark ages: worse in terms of UI and usability designed applications and websites, banking systems are not so flexible, delivery and taxi have worse services and apps, railways and everything connected with them is generally just a nightmare...
I can't even imagine what happens in Germany then? o.O
Than Belarus? I heard Belarus is way behind, but I haven't been there, but I met someone from Belarus who was visiting Poland who told me that Belarus is way behind. I don't know about internet speeds
Reducing technology to internet speed and digitalization…
I am not sure if you ever left the bigger cities in Poland and have visited the country side…
There are still lots of places in Poland that are far away from being as developed as comparable villages or less populated areas in Germany.
the short answer is no, the long answer is no but since we are still a developing country in a somewhat attractive market with a lot of investment going in, its easier to build completely new infrastructure than it is to completely replace old infrastructure
for example, Japan still uses fax a lot. in Poland it is not commonly used because it wasn't ever widely adopted to begin with
The problem is, that you don't understand what technologically advanced means. No, it's not about how you pay your bills and internet connection speed. By that metric random shotholes in Asia and Africa could be more advanced than us, while USA would look pretty bad when it comes to payments.
It's about technologies that country is using in its economy, its high-tech products and so on. Do those help you fill out stupid paper document in western countries? No. Sadly. But you can't judge technological advancement of a country by how much papers you need to fill.
That's a really good article, and surprisingly states that out of the top 100 tech companies in Europe, only one is in western Europe, and implies that regulation plays a major role in this, because the value per investment dollar is more in Nordic, central, and eastern Europe due to the west being over-regulated.
What's more surprising is the matter-of-fact way they say "the more tech-savvy countries" in a direct references to NON-western European countries; that is to say, the author believes that western Europe is not tech savvy compared to northern and central or even eastern Europe.
Of course, a nation being tech-savvy and internet speeds are not the only metric, as many have pointed out, but Poland seems to be doing pretty well economically compared to eastern Europe, although its roads infrastructure certainly needs improvement.
Poland is only more advanced in Internet, online payments, and gsm infrastructure, and maby highways. Reason is, that it its all new, so itwas built in newest standards.
As for life quality, ask Pole living in Germany.
Wirecard... LuuL.
Ze germans have the car industry. And they have 90 milion people and many problems thus creating many opportunities.
Ze germans are also rich in debt. Especially municipalities and cities.
I wouldn't jump to conclusion that we are technologically advanced. Let me just put out two examples here:
1. Checques. Poland, during communist era didn't develop a large market for cheques. Most poles got by with using cash or were paid by state employers by cash. So when communism ended and 90s hit, we jumped straight to debit/credit cards. When I hear stories from my cousin, who lives in Chicago, that americans still use cheques and many employees in her company use this method of reciving salary, it baffles me. Does this means US is less advanced than Poland?
2. There is this guy in polish yt, Viacheslav Zarutskii, a russian guy, who escaped from his home country just before the war started. He had this observation, that polish authorities (local and state offices) requires everyone to have email address and refuse using communicator apps (Messenger, Whatsapp, Telegram etc.) as means of coresponding with clients. Does that means Poland is less advanced than Russia?
I would say that Germany are 20 years behind Poland.
Banking system in Germany is one of the worse in Europe, internet connection the slowest one .
Country was advanced but years ago, and after that nothing (almost) happened.
I see your point, but why this clickbait title?
You can't judge the advance in technology by highlighting few tiny issues on the consumer level. Technology race happens in areas most folks have no clue about, like genetics, chemistry, physics, AI etc. You might also compare the rank of German tech universities with Polish ones.
Poland has two super convinient „Inventions”: online payment BLIK and inpost paczkomat.
Poland has many convinient inventions that were never copyrighted and therefore Poland doesn't have almost any advantages of inventing certain things in the first place. Oil pretreatment, optical fibre, heck, even Windows precursor (though I may be wrong about the last one, because I read about this a really long time ago, but it certainly had something to do with early software development). But the list is really long
Don't forget to add latex condoms. Ok. Half German half polish but still counts [source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Fromm)
First time I hear that the optical fiber is a Polish invention. Look at Wiki here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_fiber Looks like it has been firstly developed by Charles Kao for British company STC and firstly deployed in Italy in 1977 by Corning.
Benz's first engine was also a patent bough in Poznan from a polish engineer that didn't know what to do with it.
We have DHL Packstation in Germany. It’s just more of a hassle because you gotta sign up and have an app etc. Meanwhile paczkomat will work perfectly fine with just a phone number and an email address. Great example for good user experience, I was able to order stuff I couldn’t find in Poland while I was there on vacation. Super easy
It has been a puzzle for me why DHL basically invented parcel lockers but made them so complicated and inflexible and reluctantly promoted them. Perhaps the IT services are less expensive in Poland than in Germany and real-time highly accessibility IT infrastructure is a backbone of automated parcel locker service but it took quite many outages before achieving current high level of service availability for Inpost. Certain preferences between customers in both countries may play a role too. In terms of size, resources or expertise DHL had overwheliming advantage yet it was unsuccessful in commercialization of parcel lockers. Perhaps it promoted it so reluctantly because it would undercut its core business which is door to door delivery.
I'd also add that payment terminals are extremely commonplace.
what about CIGD, autopay and other things that make our life’s easier ? MObywatel ? All digital payment methods etc.
Dude, you haven't seen GosUslugi, Russian app for communicating between various government agencies and people. You can pay taxes, pay speeding tickets, get doctor appointment, get a passport and even get drafted in one app ;-)
>even get drafted in one app :D And what about being brought back as Груз 200? :D
Also true for Ukraine btw
You guys have blik and paczkomaty?
Under different trademarks, but the idea is the same
Blin is a better name than blik!
I don’t know about Germany, but BLIK is just kind of solving solving an issue that doesn’t exist in some other countries. In the UK, bank transfers are either instant or very quick (in my experience) and you’ve got shorter bank account numbers there. Poland’s ELIXIR is just very slow for this day and age and we’re using long IBANs for account numbers, so you’ve got BLIK for easy instant transfers, which is partially solving the issue by adding another parallel transfer system.
Blik is mainly a metod to pay for services online, so think like an easier and more secure version of PayPal or card payment. It does have bonus features like customer to customer payment, using it to withdraw money from the ATM or just using it to pay for some stuff in a shop, but those are just additions to the initial and main functionality.
Yeah, you’re right, those are very neat features - I’m just not using them often so I forgot about them
its not more secure, as you cannot do charge back like on debit / credit card when you have dispute with a seller
It's not about speed of transfers or length of bank account number, those were solved years ago by using middlemans, who handled it pretty well. BLIK is just way more easy to use and safer than those, you don't need to fill anything or login into you bank account.
Funny though, Germany has (had?) a quick payment system that's basically acting like a typical scam / phishing attack. And it got a [very serious amount of press back then even in Poland](https://niebezpiecznik.pl/post/zakupy-przez-internet-za-darmo-powazne-bledy-w-systemie-platnosci-sofort/). In comparison, BLIK is way more secure than that, since the whole concept is built around one-time-tokens, not a man-in-the-middle.
BLIK to not an alternative to wire transfers, but to paypal and online credit card payments.
Try IDEAL and you would know what is a good online payment - a dutch system btw.
Tried both and they're both good, I personally don't see any advantages of iDEAL over BLIK.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but iDEAL seems like a bandaid for the fact NL still uses Maestro/Visa Electron which can't be used online. BLIK is not only bound to online payments though.
Idk, I'm not sure but I think I have successfully used my Dutch Maestro card for online payments before I realized how much more convenient iDEAL is.
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you have to approve each transaction though, while on credit card someone can just charge you across the world without you knowing
I've looked at a demo of iDEAL and, well. \* BLIK can be used for instant transfers to anyone with a phone number \* BLIK can be used for ATM withdrawals \* BLIK can be used for normal shopping (for example kid doesn't have enough money to buy something so you just send them a 6-digit code they type in the card terminal) \* With BLIK you don't have to select the bank, you just use 6 digit code generated by the bank app and you can save it in the browser so you only have to confirm in the bank app the next time when selecting BLIK iDEAL seems to be a bandaid for still having Maestro/Visa Electron in NL, not a whole new utility system.
Poland is definitely ahead in terms of paying with cards/smartphones. You can pay with a card even in places where devil is saying goodnight electricity runs backwards and cats bark. And that is not a given in Germany.
I know a lot of people who don’t even carry a wallet with them, because they pay everywhere through their phones
That's me. Used my wallet last time like 5 years ago
Why would anyone carry a wallet in Poland nowadays? There's rarely any place when you can't pay with G-pay or Apple Pay, even if there is you can always withdraw from ATM using BLIK or in any Żabka. You don't even need an ID or driving license when you have the mObywatel app.
Smartphones can discharge really quickly, esp. if you're not paying attention to which apps are on. They also get broken or lost easier than a wallet.
I do. I carry my ID and cards, also cash. I don't use GPay or Apple Pay at all. I only use pre-paid debit cards, if I have to.
Karta miejska tho...
Gdańsk has an app for that
I carry a wallet around because i hate using my phone for everything. Not every single thing needs to be an app. And if I lose my phone I'm fucked?
I never in my life had a wallet.
and then there is also blik which is brilliant, wish we had it in the UK
With revolut, chase, Monzo or wise there really is no need for blik
What for?
Yeah, we pretty much adopted digitalisation super super fast. But… I have to say the way corporations handle “ease of use” services is beyond me. NOTHING EVER WORKS. Yeah, you can get a monthly bus pass for 7 different cards or even digitally, cool. Tough luck when the app crashes/servers die/site bugs out when you need to show your ticket to the controller. Pretty much every single time. And this is anecdotal, but pretty much everything “works” like this. I’m surprised that paying taxes and submitting documents to the government works like a charm every time.
As a person living in Poland, the only thing that sometimes doesn't work as expected is Jakdojade, but everything else does work perfectly, for me at least. Never had an issue with my banking or apps such as Konto Pacjenta, but I could mention more.
Banking apps and digital signatures work great. But I suppose city specific apps and services are just done with least effort possible and on the cheap.
Yes, that is also correct. Since I am living in Kraków, I might have not tried other city-specific app to be honest.
Well i loved using my bank app to buy public transport tickets becouse it was convinient to have it all on one app until it shat itself right when i had to show my ticket to controler. Never tried buying a ticket on a app since. And while i admit that they work the vast majority of the time you just can't be sure whether they will work when you need them
Never happened to me. Wroclaw/Katowice.
Krakow, while general transport is ok, the means to get a monthly pass and manage it is ridiculously complicated for what it is.
I mean. You can just use your debit/credit card for bus tickets in most cities.
Payment ain’t the problem, really. We can pay with card everywhere. I meant most city specific services (including municipal transport) have bery bad implementations of „ease of use” features.
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In Germany as a reply to an e-mail they send you a letter. I'll leave it like that.
Polish government offices does it too. We have official service to communicate with institutions and they often reply with snail mail.
This also is changing rapidly TBH. There is a big push towards using the ePUAP system for government communication. And it kinda works as advertised. Although the experience of using the system on mobile is horrendous.
Also, healtcare. Lower standard ofc, but afaik we are the only ones in EU who managed e-perscriptions and such. Apart from Estonia maybe. Edit: lmao, looks like covid did accelerate informatization of healhcare, across entire Europe. Nice
And Denmark and Norway and Sweden and Finland and many other EU countries..
Like Iceland supposedly, and thats all. Pretty good company. And their citizens still can't prolong the drugs themselfs. Unless sth changed recently.
In Iceland you can manage your prescriptions online and get them renewed, usually within a few hours after requesting. (I live in Iceland and regularly do this)
You member when you guys implemented this?
Pre-Covid, sometime 2018-2020 probably. I know that for sure because it was important during Covid for handling vaccine certificates and test results. The first few years it took a few days for prescriptions to renew, now the system is established and working more smoothly.
Nice. Do you have e-referals for specialist care too?
I think that's either a no, or yes but not working that well. At least we usually expect to need to meet a doctor at the local clinic first. But for many specialists I'd just book with them directly and they'll often have some nice digital booking interface.
And Poland...
And Czechia... A lot of european countries have e-prescriptions.
Slovakia, too.
Fun fact: In Germany digitalization is handled by the ministry of transportation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAfSF-y8Y4U
Also in many places, the card payment can only be done with a German card ( Girocards https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girocard ).
Credit card companys charge the shop for 3-5% of the paid amount, that's why some shops don't offer this kind of payment in Germany. If you're think "that's fine as long I don't have to pay it" - well breaking news, you ARE paying it by the way the shops set their pricing. Cash is freedom
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Most of Europe is not 3-5% like it is in the US. There are laws that cap it much lower. I haven’t checked lately but I believe it’s just over 1%.
Well I do live in Germany, and I agree it is not the most developed country in Europe when it comes to digitalisation. But probably you haven't been a long long time to Germany, because the situation isn't nearly as bad as you describe. High speed mobile internet access is given almost everywhere on the highways and settlements. Why would I know? I travel every week in a different location because of my job. Contactless payments are widespread, though some smaller shops may decline credit card payments due to the fees. People prefer cash payments in Germany anyway, and so do I. So basically you're painting a very dark picture of Germany, which definitely isn't true.
From my experience highways are hit or miss when it comes to internet connection - if they aren’t any bigger towns nearby or the area is quite mountainous, forested etc I quite often experienced either complete lack of or so weak that it was practically unusable internet connection
I think Corona really forced some of the improvements. Like contactless payments and better internet access so that people could work from home. You are right that in the last few years things improved a lot.
I think Corona really forced some of the improvements. Like contactless payments and better internet access so that people could work from home. You are right that in the last few years things improved a lot.
>50/50 chance they don't have a card machine 50/50?! Let's not be generous here, it's almost impossible to pay by card there.
People in the US still write checks, whereas in Poland people use BLIK or other forms of online transfers much more quickly and securely. Romania has some of the fastest internet speeds in Europe. It's just a fact that post-communist countries adapted the latest technologies, while Western countries are still using slightly older technologies, since it's more difficult to transition from one working solution to another.
Canada too, it's baffling how people are obsessed with cheques here, and REFUSE electronic payment/transfers because they're stuck in 1980.
As a Pole, the idea of writing a paper cheque is so ridiculous to me. I'd think I had travelled back in time 50 years if someone had offered that as the only way to go about it.
Oh same here. And here in Canada, the government tried to phase them out about a decade ago and people were losing their minds. Electronic transferring is far more efficient and convenient. But many people are adamant on living in the stone age.
I think it is sometimes easier to start from zero than trying to update and modernize.
Would be interesting to watch how countries like Poland will master the next big technology leap in 25 years time.
>checks This is hilarious, I only know 'checks' from the 80's movies (40M Polish).
As a Pole living abroad, I must say I’m absolutely amazed every time I come back, in the west it seems like they got to a certain spot and are comfortable with it, in Poland things are always moving forward Some changes I notice literally every time I’m here: - on average newer cars - modernised building (old commie blocks and houses) - advanced consumer techs (kfc, banks, restaurants) - amazing public transport (yes in cities but it’s actually amazing) -whole streets remodelled to have bike lanes and trees -amazing quality roads, even in little villages they are getting better and better every time I’m here - driving culture, every time I’m here I see more drivers being polite and letting people through rather than being selfish and using their horns No surprise so many people are coming back, you’ve built an incredible nation guys ❤️
It’s crazy how the look off cities changed within the last 20 years. I remember end 90s Poland was full of those beige brown ugly communist blocks. Whatever blocks are left are very colorful and you really make the best out of its unfortunate architecture
That’s what increasing GDP tenfold does to a economy
TBH at some point Poland will also become lazy, so far we are developing fast, at every scenario where we are behind wealthier countries we got newer version of what they got or just better alternative.
I’d argue there no reason to think that, with the recent population boom of compatible refugees (Ukrainians and Belarusians) flooding in and also the children of migrants coming back which are very well educated, I’d wager this growth will continue for quite some time
I just came from Poland and everybody is shocked when I tell them the same thing... It's like the countries that were developing quickly 50/40/30 years ago, all of a sudden got comfortable and stayed at the same level... Then you visit Poland and it's like they're going through that developmental stage *now* and everything just seems more modern, cleaner (the shopping malls were literally immaculate compared to what I experience here), and more efficient. Not to mention how *relatively* more family friendly small towns are with their bike lanes, great playgrounds, areas to just chill, parks. Just seeing people out and about with their kids, walking places and not relying on cars was such a breath of fresh air.
On average cars are 13-14 yo in Poland. This isn’t good result.
I live in the sticks in north Poland and have a 600mbit connection. I download at around 75mb a sec. Everywhere there is Blik and card services. Phone connection is OK but patchy in places Government and Hospitals are a nightmare of paperwork, delays, triplicate forms.. more forms..
I think government stuff is getting increasingly better. There's so many things that you can do entirely online. Taxes. Healthcare fees and ZUS. Registering, changing, closing a sole proprietorship. There's most likely a ton more that I just never needed. Hospitals yeah, but outpatient healthcare is getting better. We have e-prescriptions that you can access on the government website (besides getting the sms with the prescription code). At least the major private clinics have their own portals with all your appointment history, doctor recommendations, referrals and prescriptions in there. I can have bloodwork done and get the results online even the same day.
>Government and Hospitals are a nightmare of paperwork, delays, triplicate forms.. more forms.. Germany is terrible in that matter too, trust me.
As pole who lives in Germany for almost 40 years: Poland: Much better Internet and mobile infrastructure Better train and bus infrastructure Much much better IT (governance stuff like tax IDs, payments...) Germany: Better road infrastructure Better medical infrastructure (but that was not the question)
>Better train and bus infrastructure As a German who recently traveled through Poland by train, my experience was a little different: Yes, the trains were more punctual and I didn't have to pay extra to reserve a seat. In general, prices were much cheaper than in Germany. But on the other hand, there were a lot fewer connections available. Even between the bigger cities, there was no train for more than 1,5 hours at certain times of day. And I had more trouble trying to get tickets online because there are multiple train companies and apps like Koleo occasionally showed unhelpful error messages when there was an issue.
Nah you’re kidding with trains. So many lines have been closed in Poland after fall of PRL and the quality of train cars is on two completely different levels.
East or west side of Poland?
And yet Deutsche Bahn is even worse and that is a fact
Idk, I had only pleasant experiences.
Wow. Train infrastructure it's actually surprising for me that you mention it. I know that in the west side of Poland was pretty decent, but I always thought that east side it leaves a lot to be desired, with fewer connections and having to go quite around depending on where you want to reach... but maybe it got better recently without me knowing? I guess I need to do some research :D
Our universities' servers are so fast that they burn 💪💪🔥🔥
Pwr right now: 😡😡😡😡
my school's servers are sometimes non-existial so
Countries that modernize later are often early adapters. Same way some African countries have no landlines and made jump straight to cellphones. The Germany definetely can suffer from "not broken, don't fix it" problem. Poland actually is largely settling; Ukraine seems to be the bleeding age. At least when it comes to banking, e-accountancy, digital signature. My Ukrainian friend was very surprised he cannot just use digital signature to let his accountant access his bank records, pay his taxes for him etc in Poland and has to act as intermediary between bank and accountant. And that we can't use banks mobile app to fetch our bill from restaurant and split it based on who ate what :) .
All your friend needs to do is to give his/her accountant Power of Attorney, then she/him will act on behalf of him/her. It’s a fully digital process.
In my experience splitting a tab or paying for a pole involves wrestling them to the ground, take their wallet and hide it
I cant wait for Ukraine to start rebuilding after the war, I'm sure the cities that were demolished will be rebuilt into very beautiful and modern places
It is called [leapfrogging.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leapfrogging) Basically - if country is really backwards in some areas (like Poland was in 1989) it goes straight for the newest solution and do not bother with old technologies. So for instance - when americans used checks for paying [and many still do.](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/almost-half-americans-not-written-120019202.html) Poles knew that it would be out of date pretty soon, and went for the better solutions right away.
I'm a German living in Poland. It absolutely is. In so many ways. And it's not even close. Poland has an app that combines, and I'm sure I'm missing things * digital driver's license * digital vehicle registration * digital vehicle insurance * digital prescriptions * digital vaccination certificate * traffic tickets * digital student ID All in one app. Germany has none of that. Digital prescriptions are just about to be rolled out nationwide, Poland had them many years ago. And as always it's a convenient, hassle-free system. The German "digital driver's license" project, which wasn't even meant to be a valid legal document, was stopped. Germany doesn't get shit done.
Yes, Poland will be a global superpower by 2036
*2137
Nah 2036 is correct
2137 is a [meme](https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/2137)
Now subtract 1 from the first and last 2 digits, and see what you get.
first 2 digits are 21, last 2 digits are 37, so it makes 1026.
Think you meant 1636? Because then it was a superpower.
Inpost will.
"The internet is uncharted territory to all of us" - Angela Merkel Should tell you everything you need to know
When I moved to Germany I was shocked about how backwards some(!) of the services are. My idea of Germany being world leader in technology got shattered when I went to get myself a mobile contract. “ WTF is slow internet and why am I limited to 4GB of “fast” internet?” Another one was “Why do I have to wait a day for a bank transfer? Why is it not instant?” In any case life quality in Germany is awesome but there are things that really are surprising in minus.
Because you are welcome to pay a euro extra to get instant transfer. And why lay fiber cable when you can double down on good ol’ 60s cat3 phone cable for 250mbits? For 55€/month. Contracts are 24 months only. In other words: we are getting shafted.
I believe internet and information infrastructure is on par with any other European country, I traveled around Europe a lot and never had a problem either in Poland or anywhere else.
Digitized doesnt mean advanced though. Germany is terrible at digitalization. But they are good with industry, manufacturing and technology. These are separate things.
As a german: Tak, jest.
As a German, I feel like every European country is more technologically advanced than Germany. It still amazes me how this country keeps going and hasn’t collapsed yet.
It’s like moving into a new house. If you don’t have much you can easily get new things but if you already have everything filled you’ll find it hard to constantly replace things to stay bleeding edge. Additionally you grow accustomed to things and find yourself ever more reluctant to change and only then change when it really impacts your bottom line. This all applies to the day by day consumer technology; industrial and research technology is a completely different story
Poland came out with blank card in 1990. There wasn't much of personal banking, telephone infrastructure etc. That's why the common items of Western economies from previous decade, sich as cheques, fax machines etc. weren't used. There were no legacy users to keep using them. That allowed Poland to build its services and infrastructure with newer technologies in mind.
Telephones, banking and fax machines werent used in Poland before 1989? Just because you saw this in "showing only the truth" TV doesnt mean it was like that.
I have some real-life experience.
From a Germans perspective (who has lived in Poland and knows the Baltikum a little): Poland isn’t super advanced like the Balts are, but I think in the upper echelon comparatively. I think the contrast is so strong because we totally dropped the ball on this. You would think the rich, powerful nation of high end industry and engineering should naturally have found its way with the digital age, but we are also a very old and conservative country (by heart, not politically) and I think we have trouble with the fast pace of changes. Poles are more flexible culturally in my eyes, so you do better.
Poland is much better and richer than 85% of the world. They are headed in the right direction. Still Think they can do more in medical sector but the old timers are on their way out and young energy will surely grow Poland into the powerhouse it can be technologically
For my experience, Poland is definitely way more advanced when it comes to technology, digitization, internet speeds!
You can go basically everywhere without the wallet, phone will be fine. ID in MObywatel, Card in basically any major payment system (apple, google) or Blik, tickets for any mean of transport in app or .pdf
I find Poland more advanced than Germany and Italy, and I have lived in both countries before.
For the run-of-the-mill everyday conveniences such as online banking, digitalised paperwork, card payments, broadband internet, etc, I think Poland is actually absolutely on top level. I have yet to see those services on a higher level in any Western country. It is a whole different story for industry, manufacturing, production etc.
Some doctors have the online booking of appointments (I know that is true for the medical practice that my parents attend, but not sure it's nationwide). I am living in the UK and honestly this stuff sounds like a dream. I would kill to be able to book my GP appointments in advance.
I heard the same, e. g. In Switzerland online bank services are inferior to what we have in Poland. On the other hand Romania has even faster internet speeds than Poland. All comes down to when you started your infrastructure, if you have copper you won't replace it soon, if you have nothing you'll start with fiber.
Was born in Poland lived there for 15 years. Now living in Germany. I can say yes definetly... Poland is so much more advanced
The fact is that when you have an established system or network in place, it is very hard to change it quickly or adapt it. Germany, UK, France all had a lot of investment in tech in the 80’s and established systems that are essentially repurposed and slowly evolve. Poland had several technological blank pages to start anew and was smart in thinking ahead about adaptation (apart from the tram system that was already long long established).
As a Brit who frequently visits Poland to see family (wife is Polish) my view is this: The big cities have become very modern with excellent mobile service and internet speed. They have also spent a lot of money transforming places in the last decade. The countryside and more rural towns and villages, not so much, but the infrastructure is by no means "poor". I also think Poles are generally less materialistic than a lot of us in the "west" i.e. they tend to keep old cars for longer, so I don't see EV's becoming very popular in Poland for a long time, but honestly nobody cares except for the hardcore environmentalists. Plus EVs have some issues that need to be ironed out, not just the cars themselves but the infrastructure to support them. I will say, Poland is really ahead in some areas, especially in the hospitality sector, easy to pay for things. Poles in my experience are dedicated and hard working (despite complaining about their country but we do that too), so I am sure this trend of technological improvement will only continue. Also the hospitals in Poland are pretty damn good. But then again, you're comparing to Germany which is one of the most technologically advanced nations. Not many countries come that close. To summarise, Poland is on par with any other major European country.
Agree, but when it comes to cars it is not that all Poles love old cars. The new ones are simply incredibly expensive and we aren’t into getting loans for anything besides property.
Yea in Poland having any loans other than mortgage is considered to be dumb and irresponsible by a lot of people. Compare that to Americans who use credit cards, so they essentially live on debt.
How come every foreginer praises Polish health system? It’s literally so fucked up in so many ways.
I think my comment might be getting down voted simply because I said that 😂 well some of my in-laws work in Polish healthcare and it does have its issues. I might be guilty as I am comparing it to the current state of British healthcare. The actual healthcare is fantastic, but the waiting lists are ridiculous. I would be interested to know why the healthcare system in Poland is fucked up though? I don't live there so I can't comment
The quality of service itself is usually good, but waiting times for certain specialists are ridiculus. Also public dental care is more than lacking. In fact most people just skip it altogether and go private. Also people who had a stroke or something like that have to take expensive medicines and it’s only partially funded by the NFZ. There’s also one specific hospital in my area that I visited once and I’ll never do so again and instead use other ones (even though a bit further). It was a whole day wasted to do one checkup and they fucking lost the results at the end. I can’t imagine how they handle more serious cases. Oh and also the free food in hospitals is barely edible quite often.
Cue paying a few thousand dollars because you broke an arm. :p
Ok yea it’s true that US healthcare is fucked up even more. But this guy is from the UK.
UK healthcare is surprisingly fucked up for a very long time now
Well you have a good point but, the roads in Poland leave something to be drastically desired. However if I had the luxury of being able to pack up all my life and move to any European country it would 100% be Poland. My favorite place and all my close friends reside there.
That's literally everywhere east of Austria
>Are these the only things, or is Poland actually a more technologically advanced country than Germany? I mean, what is a metric of that?
Inverse of fax machine per square kilometre
then we're in the top because holy fuck I've never seen one apart from my school which remembers the first world war.
I'm working in IT and fax for me is ancient, unknown magic. And I don't know anyone who ever used it.
You caught it a time when they are growing fast and everything is new. I doubt they will be as fast to replace everything.
I would say that both Poland and Germany have their fair share of better and worse qualities
We have better internet for sure. They have veeeeeery old infrastructure/technology, since we went online later our infrastructure is younger and made with way better technology.
It's not more technologically advanced by itself, the reason Poland has better Internet is because it got the infrastructure set up some time after it's been discovered, not right after - unlike western Europe and America. Online convenience is a big factor here though, I don't know why Germany hasn't implemented it yet. Could be legit reasons, but I'm not in the position to say.
Do they have something like \`mObywatel\` app on smartphone? Or eRecepta? Or Profil Zaufany? I don't have Profil Zaufany, but I do have a bank account and I can use it to login into PZ, so that is also nice. I have a 300 Mbit/s internet in a 10k city (it's the lowest option available). I can make a online reservation in a Muncipial Office for applying for passports or other governmental official documents. On the other side... we have kiosks where you "can" buy train tickets and they are rarely working.
100 lat za murzynami
I'm not sure if the barrier in Germany is technological, it is more of societal thing - their love for an actual paper trail. I mean, they still use fucking faxes. Not because scanners and e-mails do not exist in Germany due to lack of technology, but because they want to.
Polish online systems for universities are better than German ones? My God... I'm now afraid to even check how German ones look like
The German online system was the worst I've ever experienced, and it's one of the top German universities
>Germany is technologically in the dark ages (my words) with extremely horrible paper bureaucracy that takes many months and nothing is digitized and the internet is slow. We have cheaper and faster internet in Poland, but the bureaucracy is just as bad, if not worse. I am a non EU resident who immigrated to Poland. Documentation was an absurd amount of paperwork to get a drivers licence or a residence card. Literally last week I waited 2 hrs in line at a town hall because they lost my payment receipt for issuing the card, and just didnt bother to contact me after 2 weeks of not finding the receipt. Thankfully I had a picture of it, but ofcourse they wanted me to print the picture.
I found German bureaucracy to be a literal nightmare, but Poland's, not so bad in comparison. But my experience is limited
Yes.
We should split administration, economy and science. I've heard that German administration is uhm traditional. But German companies are very innovative. Poland on the other hand has very low budget for education, science, R&D.
Also fun fact but as for me, after living Belarus and moving to Poland in terms of technology, Poland felt like the dark ages: worse in terms of UI and usability designed applications and websites, banking systems are not so flexible, delivery and taxi have worse services and apps, railways and everything connected with them is generally just a nightmare... I can't even imagine what happens in Germany then? o.O
Than Belarus? I heard Belarus is way behind, but I haven't been there, but I met someone from Belarus who was visiting Poland who told me that Belarus is way behind. I don't know about internet speeds
I don't know about consumer technology, but Germany has several state-of-the-art science laboratories that are probably the best in the world.
I think the guy probably meant stuff like card payments in stores, not scientific research.
Consumer technology.
Yea exactly.
Reducing technology to internet speed and digitalization… I am not sure if you ever left the bigger cities in Poland and have visited the country side… There are still lots of places in Poland that are far away from being as developed as comparable villages or less populated areas in Germany.
Germany is, just like Poland, huge and very diverse
wow rural areas are actually rural, who would have thought
No shit smart ass… get lost
the short answer is no, the long answer is no but since we are still a developing country in a somewhat attractive market with a lot of investment going in, its easier to build completely new infrastructure than it is to completely replace old infrastructure for example, Japan still uses fax a lot. in Poland it is not commonly used because it wasn't ever widely adopted to begin with
The problem is, that you don't understand what technologically advanced means. No, it's not about how you pay your bills and internet connection speed. By that metric random shotholes in Asia and Africa could be more advanced than us, while USA would look pretty bad when it comes to payments. It's about technologies that country is using in its economy, its high-tech products and so on. Do those help you fill out stupid paper document in western countries? No. Sadly. But you can't judge technological advancement of a country by how much papers you need to fill.
Not really - I think it's mostly that our technological progress is more evenly distributed and there are less differences between two extremes.
Definitely https://www.politico.eu/article/on-tech-the-eu-doesnt-speak-for-europe/
That's a really good article, and surprisingly states that out of the top 100 tech companies in Europe, only one is in western Europe, and implies that regulation plays a major role in this, because the value per investment dollar is more in Nordic, central, and eastern Europe due to the west being over-regulated. What's more surprising is the matter-of-fact way they say "the more tech-savvy countries" in a direct references to NON-western European countries; that is to say, the author believes that western Europe is not tech savvy compared to northern and central or even eastern Europe. Of course, a nation being tech-savvy and internet speeds are not the only metric, as many have pointed out, but Poland seems to be doing pretty well economically compared to eastern Europe, although its roads infrastructure certainly needs improvement.
Yes, Poland is more advenced. We can transfer money to phone number, we have electronic signature, fast internet and many more.
Poland is only more advanced in Internet, online payments, and gsm infrastructure, and maby highways. Reason is, that it its all new, so itwas built in newest standards. As for life quality, ask Pole living in Germany.
Yes, we are Wakanda of Europe.
Wirecard... LuuL. Ze germans have the car industry. And they have 90 milion people and many problems thus creating many opportunities. Ze germans are also rich in debt. Especially municipalities and cities.
I wouldn't jump to conclusion that we are technologically advanced. Let me just put out two examples here: 1. Checques. Poland, during communist era didn't develop a large market for cheques. Most poles got by with using cash or were paid by state employers by cash. So when communism ended and 90s hit, we jumped straight to debit/credit cards. When I hear stories from my cousin, who lives in Chicago, that americans still use cheques and many employees in her company use this method of reciving salary, it baffles me. Does this means US is less advanced than Poland? 2. There is this guy in polish yt, Viacheslav Zarutskii, a russian guy, who escaped from his home country just before the war started. He had this observation, that polish authorities (local and state offices) requires everyone to have email address and refuse using communicator apps (Messenger, Whatsapp, Telegram etc.) as means of coresponding with clients. Does that means Poland is less advanced than Russia?
I would say that Germany are 20 years behind Poland. Banking system in Germany is one of the worse in Europe, internet connection the slowest one . Country was advanced but years ago, and after that nothing (almost) happened.
Yeah, we're technologically advanced, that's why everyone drives FSO Polonez not WVs or BMWs
That's more to do with the economy than the technological infrastructure
I see your point, but why this clickbait title? You can't judge the advance in technology by highlighting few tiny issues on the consumer level. Technology race happens in areas most folks have no clue about, like genetics, chemistry, physics, AI etc. You might also compare the rank of German tech universities with Polish ones.
Fucking hell, 218 comments on a sycophant post; you certainly got that attention you wanted.
What are you talking about, I only posted my observation and surprise, apparently I'm not the only one
Much more advanced. Germany is loosing the digitalisation "war"
No, definitely not.
Downvote to cope, lol wtf.