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Comment by adilmoujahid | Hacker News Reader

How can you explain that most Europeans use US services: Amazon, Ebay, Facebook, Google, Dropbox, AirBnB, Uber?

These are not just US services. They are isolated to one specific location, where the capital of talent and finance met. There are reasons why these companies didn't emerge in Idaho or Arkansas. Europe had its own issue at the era when the current VCs emerged: the Soviets were still there, Britain had way more people beneath the poverty line, Norway hasn't found its oil yet, etc. But we are catching up.

Every single company you named targets for European markets, thus Europeans use them.

I got that, but the previous comment argues that the heterogeneity of the European market is the main reason for the difficulty of launching successful companies rather than European lawmakers. This argument doesn't explain the success of American companies in Europe.

I suppose the argument would be that those companies launched in the USA first, were successful there, and then had enough capital and resources to launch in the tougher more fragmented European markets.

That argument is probably correct.

Here in Israel, which is often considered one of the closest "startup capitals" to Silicon Valley, what almost any new company will do is just lunch in the US, since it's an easy market. Most wouldn't launch in Israel, since it's such a small market (8 million people).

A few will launch in Europe, but because of all the issues mentioned above (different laws, languages, cultures, etc), the US is a much more attractive first target.

Once they get big, they might then move to Europe.

This is a very good strategy. I guess it should be hard to execute but once you perfect it basically the small market problems are gone. Any idea whats the general way startups go about doing that ? Also how do you immigrate to Israel (:D) ?

It's usual to start a company here in Israel, then have one office (or one person, or a salesperson) in the States. So development will continue in Israel, but product/sales/management will be in the States.

That's by no means the only way, but it's a common one.

There are a few accelerators/etc who specialize in helping Israeli companies approach the US market and get exposed to Silicon Valley.

Other than that, most of the problems are kind of the same as with any startup - trying to build something people want. The biggest issue is if "things people want" is different in Israel and the States, and that's why exposure to the US market right from the start is so important.

As for immigrating to Israel - I don't really know much about the topic. If you're Jewish, it's incredibly easy, but if you're not, then I have no idea how the process looks like. Sorry.

The lack of equaly competitive European offerings is to blame. Tax, regulatory and bureaucratic overhead is to blame for the former. Most of the interesting European tech is done in universities and dies there. Americans also have a much more pragmatic attitude towards business.

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