We can say that's some of the exceptions but if we're going to talk in general, most of the countries now are connected to the web and they can have their digital economy there. And as a businessman, I'll consider if it's going to be a good addition to having a website for my business but you're right that if my target market is my local area that doesn't use mostly the internet then it makes no sense at all. But if we look at the whole thing with the global competitiveness now of many service industries, you'd see how huge it is and those few people or cities or rural areas that you're talking about having no connectivity at all are just a few and most of them are irrelevant for the digital economy. And with some tools like Starlink or any type of other the same satellite dish tool, even in those areas that are not serviceable by the ISPs can have their own share to the global digital economy by not being a businessman but as freelance workers.
I mostly talk exclusively from my situation but believe me, we are very technically advanced in terms of informational technologies. I'll tell you what's another problem, most of business owners or those who start businesses, are 40+ people. They grew up without IT technologies and have the old mentality. It's hard to convince them to invest in social media marketing, to create a website and grow their business digitally. Even if you convince them to do it, then they hesitate to pay money, it's hard to explain to them that there is a process of UI/UX design, then coding and etc, they usually end up hiring a guy who does a cheap useless website for some bucks and then these business owners are crying, saying that digital space is a waste of time.
I totally agree with you about the oldies. Many of them still rely on the normal methodologies and the old methods. When you tell them that they should increase their online and social media presence, they will tell you that they know better than you because they've been in the business for years. I understand their end but once one of them is certainly curious about such, they'll have a case study about it and will have an idea if it should be done for their business or not. Now, the freelancing marketplaces are also getting those lowballed professionals because of people that would like to pay cheaply for services like this.