Talent. Frameworks. Engineering Teams.
It's been an ongoing discussion between Troy and myself about the development frameworks and the implicatiosn that I has on building your engineering team.
Troy recently moved to Kuala Lampur and noticed a similar trend on startups basing their development frameworks on php as in Bangalore. Several startups both in Bangalore and Kuala Lampur are having a difficult time finding mid to senior level talent for Rails. This is because if you're good and you know Rails or Python you've probably migrated to a part of the world where you'll make more money, like the States or Europe. Also most mid to senior people in this part of the world have been developing on php since circa 2008.
Check this post out for comparing different frameworks, it's relly quite nice.
http://www.findalltogether.com/post/django-vs-laravel-vs-rails/
When I laid out the tech stack for BrainGain, we got the opinion of Sreekandh who had some great wisdom to share.
So php or python? Hiring Implications
In Southeast Asia ..
If you choose a php framework like laravel, you'll have access to a lot of talent. It'll be easier to hire senior level developers. You'll probably pay more because the good developers know how much their worth.
If you choose a python framework like Django, your selection of developers will be smaller. It'll be harder for you to hire senior developers and you'll probably have to take the chance on a developer who has never used the framework (good thing is that python is the easiest programming language to learn). You'll probably pay less for the good developers because you can find a good php developer who is looking to get some Django experience.
If you are in South East asia and you haven't decided on a framework I'd recommend that you go with Django. The next generation of talented developers in India and South East Asia are learning Python and they're choosing not to work for startups and companies whose frameworks are built on php. Within 5 years from now startups with a php framework will have a talent pool to choose from that are of the age 30 years plus, and that'll be more expensive for you than developers who don't have any experience yet.
That said great developers are language agnostic. At the end of the just like to use great tools. So if you've picked a great framework like Django, Laravel or Rails you should be okay.