I know this gets said a lot, but I live for the day the world sees innovation and quality tech companies from Europe instead of taxation and regulation.
Not everything of value needs to be a billion dollar unicorn. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
And sure being a Unicorn is everything, but it sure as hell isn't nothing. I have no doubt there there is a company in Europe doing something amazing, but Europe doesn't have a culture that continues to churn these companies out and I can't help but believe that their approach to regulation and taxation is apart of the problem.
They get so giddy about regulation that it's kinda baffling. Regulation should be thought of an unnecessary evil - not some exciting project.
It's not that we don't have a tech industry in Europe, it's just that US tech reporters are often insular, ignorant and lazy.
And then there are the bad ones…
Sure it discourages business in ways, but in many ways it creates a better society. Business isn't fundamentally good and regulation isn't fundamentally bad either. Remember that it's regulations that banned slavery and child labor.
I agree.
> We just don't see it because Europe has much greater diversity of language and culture than North America. This means that companies can target a niche in their country that has zero relevance to Americans.
But then how come american companies are able dominate europe and even the world? On the flip side, how come canadian companies aren't dominating? How are american companies overcoming the challenges of language and culture in europe?
There might be some merit to you diversity of language and culture claim but the more I think about it, it seems like a crutch or an excuse for europeans. I think europe has a lot to offer, but they aren't living up to their potential. Could it be lack of capital/funding or cultural aversion to risk taking? Or maybe other commenters are right, there are more to life than being the top tech producer.
It's a chicken and egg problem. Quebec is different though. There's a lot going on in Quebec in French that we don't see in the English-speaking press. Same goes for the major languages in Europe. Of course none of these will "dominate the world" because they're not in English.
I don't know how you arrive at that logic.
1) Estonia have been doing some interesting things recently. In fact, they contributed a lot to Skype in the early days.
2) a significant portion of developers etc for Upwork are European.
3) SAP
4) Trust pilot
5) Zendesk
Cheers!
Even if you account for the 'unicorn' adge there is barely have innovation in Europe. On the social front too too, European pay and ownership is more concentrated in the hands of the leaders and is less evenly distributed than American counterparts.
Your comment strikes me a bit as if it comes from a defensive point of view instead of taking a hard look at things.
I would be very surprised if this was the case. Could you please back this statement with data?
Remove California and New York from the US list and ...
Europeans should worry more about building quality companies and broadening their tax base instead of getting salty about the money saved from foreigners.
Brit here (still in Europe for the moment). There is a lot if you include aerospace and pharma, less if you just consider software. The only non-British European software I've used and could remember off the top of my head was SAP.
This made me think - what countries have sourced the software on my home PC? It's mainly American with a couple of outliers: e.g. New Zealand for Otoy's Octane renderer, a UK anti-virus package (ESET), and ... that's it.
EDIT: Oops, ESET is Slovakian.