They're not only common on the Mississippi, but also the Rhine area in the Netherlands and Germany as hinterland operations for the port of Rotterdam, as well as the Danube area in eastern Europe.

Both self-propelled barges and push barges have been used for ages already in inland shipping in Europe, but have not been used a lot in the rest of the world. They also seem to only be suitable for river transport. With small scale transport over sea you have so-called feeder ships, which have an entirely different build, and never push extra barges/ships.