> Munchen and Berlin are completely different markets
In what respect? Berlin and Munich are 363 miles apart, share standard German, a currency, a time zone, a prime minister, some culture, legal system...
Are you referring to class/wealth?
In what respect? Berlin and Munich are 363 miles apart, share standard German, a currency, a time zone, a prime minister, some culture, legal system...
Are you referring to class/wealth?
Munich/Bayern - old school, conservative, traditional.
Berlin - multicultural, hipster.
Kind of like SF vs. Dallas.
That said, they are both very German and it's a little bit of a stretch to say they are different markets.
But Germany and Spain are night and day different and building for EU-wide is very hard.
Not only are there different markets, but Europeans have strong cultures, which include behaviours - they don't jump a 'the new thing' because it's cool.
America is a land of fads and trends, people like new activities, new dynamics - also, people are always in search of identity, and 'brand power' is powerful in the US across the board, just as some American brands have considerable cultural power in China.
There are basically no places in Europe with a critical mass of early adopters for anything in tech, so it's tough. Some spots, yes, and numbers overall, yes. But no hot-zones.
What the? People get in line to buy iPhones here too, Europeans are not all smart. Europe is not just the CCC and The Fabulous Destiny of Amèlie, people are addicted to Facebook about the same as Americans.
Which would make the US no more homogenous than Germany at least.
> There are basically no places in Europe with a critical mass of early adopters for anything in tech
Finland pretty much invented the mobile business (and the US still lags Europe), and European startup culture is very strong in London, the Nordics, and Berlin, (with Paris and Amsterdam also starting to make a play). Where do you think Skype, Spotify, Soundcloud, and Angry Birds come from?
Neither it, nor even Germany/UK/France have a critical mass of tech people or early adopters.
There isn't very strong 'startup culture' anywhere in Europe, unfortnately.
You listed basically all of the notable startups to come out of Europe in one sentence, which is not good.
I've lived all over Europe as well as the US, I'm aware of the differences.
There just isn't a strong cluster of tech-types, nor strong movements of early adopters for most things in Europe.
I will give you Skype though - Skype was a huge hit in Europe in 2004, especially because calling/long-distance rates were so crazy expensive - that's actually a pretty good example of a Euro-based startup hitting the local market well - i.e. 'in their pocket books' where it matters, in a way that kind of transcends national boundaries.
A startup that conquers fast/easy/cheap currency exchange, I think will likely do well in Europe as well.
But it's hard to build early adopters there, unless you hit it right.
^ This is what Revolut is doing right now in europe
Yes Finland is smaller than Los Angeles and yet pretty much invented mobile - that would seem to invalidate your point about scale. Scale removes agility and ability to innovate, it's the sole competitive edge of startups. It's also why the US mobile market still lags blocs made up of smaller markets like Asia and Europe.
> There isn't very strong 'startup culture' anywhere in Europe, unfortnately.
The Nordics would disagree and has a track record to back that up.
> You listed basically all of the notable startups to come out of Europe in one sentence, which is not good.
Hardly, I just pulled a small handful out of thin air. Here's a bunch more - https://medium.com/startup-grind/the-100-startups-which-rais..., http://www.wired.co.uk/article/europes-100-hottest-startups-...
> There just isn't a strong cluster of tech-types, nor strong movements of early adopters for most things in Europe.
I've visited a lot of the US via tech conferences (largely in college towns and hi-tech hubs). The US has no claim whatsoever here. I'd say it was possibly marginally behind Europe and way behind Asia, where I visit frequently for business. I'm including LA, SF, NY in this assessment which are starting to look like provincial towns compared to the likes of Shanghai or London. The US is notably more advanced at marketing, which is what you are seeing here; if the US had anything to compare to Shenzhen for example we would be hearing nothing except stories about US leading the world in cutting edge HW innovation from hacker-makers. I was going to add that the US was very much ahead in tech financing (and it is compared to Europe, which makes US tech itself look comparatively weak if anything) - but I think the Chinese gov is considerably outspending SV now.