To support just ONE country requires one set of lawyers. Supporting the second country DOUBLES the number of lawyers required, while adding only a fraction the number of customers. Once you scale it up "most of the world" the economies of scale kick in and the lawyers aren't so expensive anymore.
Of course, "lawyers" here is shorthand for several things. Complying with local law, handling local language, dealing with local customs, etc. "Lawyers" is a convenient shorthand because it points out that some of the things actually MUST be dealt with. Google doesn't prohibit the use of their payment system because they dislike having customers outside the current limited list of countries, they do so because they aren't smart enough to figure out how to handle every country!
We hear you, not only are there billions of people - there are literally MILLIONS of software developers globally, and we can't wait to serve them at Twilio. International support is one of our top requests and we're listening and working to bring Twilio to more customers every day.
Here's what we've currently got
- Ability to dial out from Twilio US and Canadian numbers to International destinations
- UK phone numbers w/ voice API in beta
- International SMS in beta
What I don't understand is why it costs 2x-4x more than a regular phone contract gives you.
One day America's companies will discover that outside its borders there are, literally, billions of people.. imagine that.