How hard is it to rank a site with a country extension (.de, .it, ...) in other countries? How much tougher SEO for say webhosting.de to rank in USA would be? How to convince Google you don't really care about German market although you have a .de domain?
if the extension is .us I don't think is a problem for italians. an american will not use your site if is with .it
Google give us a list with websites and the people choose from it. In conclusion, people's preferences are very important. The extensions specify the market you care.
According to what I know, it is not easy to gain a higher ranking with a ccTLD domain all over the world. Why don't try .com, .net and other international domain name? This type of domains often have a better result.
I know, but I just bought a premium domain name with a ccTLD. I was lucky to get it after it expired and I'd like to use the best way I can. Our country has a very small market potential and this is why I'd like to go global. The domain is something similar to say insurance.si