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Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

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Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#21

Post by bontoJR »

> Data by the commission shows that 41% of these EU enterprises don’t make use of any digital technology.

Technologies for these industries are everywhere, if they don't want them, will a digital European market change this? I don't think so...

> The first pillar of the plan: breaking down barriers in cross-border online activity. Differences between contract law, taxes, consumer protection and copyright laws among member states inhibit trade, the strategy says.

This is a good move, but still there are barriers in scaling: different languages and cultures.

> The commission also says it will work to remove the technical and legislative barriers that hinder the free flow of data within the EU.

This is interesting, I would really see how they will manage to achieve this without annoying France and other countries with mass-surveillance systems.

> Another pillar of the strategy: regulate a level playing field for companies and services in the same market.

In a nutshell: instead of promote European startups offering similar services, they want to fight AirBnB, Google, Apple, Uber and Facebook. We need step forwards, not fights.

It's a kind of half-baked program, still no better opportunities for investments, no better regulations for acquisitions (best exit strategy possible driving to more investors) and no program to motivate investors in putting money in the Hi-Tech market, but instead, EU will fight American companies.

Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#22

Post by marktangotango »

danmaz74 wrote: post #14

One big problem is that a European "Silicon Valley" would have to grow in one of the EU states - Silicon Valley is a locality, not a distributed phenomenon. But with our current EU system, only the state hosting this tech hub would really benefit from it: We don't have federal taxes as in the US, each country has its own "social security" and pension system to which the new jobs would contribute, and this naturally b…

There is similar competition among states in the US. The states get very little revenue from the Federal government and when they do it's for specific programs (ie Highways or education). Often times they are mandated to institute programs by the Feds with no funds to finance the programs (assistive telephony).

For example, Applebees is well known restaurant chain here. Their corporate headquarters is near the border of Kansas and Missouri. Every few years they physically move back and forth across the border depending on which state gives them the best tax break.

Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#23

Post by jpkeisala »

hikz wrote: post #13
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #2

"Europe" competing with a small neighborhood on the west coast where the vast majority of the world's tech capital lives? Sorry I don't see it. Combined with the gloomy pessimism and fear of failure even in Europe's brightest areas (London and Berlin) and the absolute, spineless pathetic nature of European VC's (no not bitter at all ;) Europe will NEVER compete on any meaningful level with Silicon Valley. edit: spell…

Here in Denmark IT companies are extremely elitist. Tons of simple ASP.NET and Java EE jobs require a master's degree in CS or CE. Contrast this with the coding bootcamps and "everyone can learn to code" culture in the US and you can see why innovation is so slow here in Denmark. I am a CS student genuinely interested in compiler construction, distributed systems and programming language design so I don't feel I'm be…

I think it is common everywhere to have out of portion experience and education requirements for programming jobs even in USA. I don't have any CS education and nobody has ever asked me about my education. Though, I have been in business since 1997.

Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#24

Post by wobbleblob »

hikz wrote: post #13
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #2

"Europe" competing with a small neighborhood on the west coast where the vast majority of the world's tech capital lives? Sorry I don't see it. Combined with the gloomy pessimism and fear of failure even in Europe's brightest areas (London and Berlin) and the absolute, spineless pathetic nature of European VC's (no not bitter at all ;) Europe will NEVER compete on any meaningful level with Silicon Valley. edit: spell…

Here in Denmark IT companies are extremely elitist. Tons of simple ASP.NET and Java EE jobs require a master's degree in CS or CE. Contrast this with the coding bootcamps and "everyone can learn to code" culture in the US and you can see why innovation is so slow here in Denmark. I am a CS student genuinely interested in compiler construction, distributed systems and programming language design so I don't feel I'm be…

Innovation isn't slow in Denmark at all (source: I work for a Danish software company). Do you have any evidence people from these 'everyone can learn to code bootcamps' actually land good jobs or end up doing something innovating in the US?

I think the difference between Denmark and Silicon valley is investment money and the size of the domestic market. If the EU wants to recreate Silicon Valley, it's not tech they need to stimulate, but money.

I think trying to recreate silicon valley is like trying to recreate Hollywood or Mecca.

Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#25

Post by tormeh »

iagooar wrote: post #19
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #2

"Europe" competing with a small neighborhood on the west coast where the vast majority of the world's tech capital lives? Sorry I don't see it. Combined with the gloomy pessimism and fear of failure even in Europe's brightest areas (London and Berlin) and the absolute, spineless pathetic nature of European VC's (no not bitter at all ;) Europe will NEVER compete on any meaningful level with Silicon Valley. edit: spell…

Could you elaborate on the nature of European VC's (as compared to American ones)? I'm genuinely curious.

Not the parent, but what I've heard is that they're cash-strapped, risk-averse and don't really care about growth.

Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#26

Post by jpkeisala »

iagooar wrote: post #19
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #2

"Europe" competing with a small neighborhood on the west coast where the vast majority of the world's tech capital lives? Sorry I don't see it. Combined with the gloomy pessimism and fear of failure even in Europe's brightest areas (London and Berlin) and the absolute, spineless pathetic nature of European VC's (no not bitter at all ;) Europe will NEVER compete on any meaningful level with Silicon Valley. edit: spell…

Could you elaborate on the nature of European VC's (as compared to American ones)? I'm genuinely curious.

Basically European VC's in hightech are living in SF. Very few are staying here.

Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#27

Post by solve »

iagooar wrote: post #19
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #2

"Europe" competing with a small neighborhood on the west coast where the vast majority of the world's tech capital lives? Sorry I don't see it. Combined with the gloomy pessimism and fear of failure even in Europe's brightest areas (London and Berlin) and the absolute, spineless pathetic nature of European VC's (no not bitter at all ;) Europe will NEVER compete on any meaningful level with Silicon Valley. edit: spell…

Could you elaborate on the nature of European VC's (as compared to American ones)? I'm genuinely curious.

It's a classic "market for lemons". The best EU VCs move or get moved to Silicon Valley. The ones that are left are nearly always bad.

Best description of them is a bunch of used car salesmen who would rather make their money by extracting value through tricking and hurting entrepreneurs, than by working hard to add value and make great bets. Sad, but that's been my experience over the years.

You could make a long list of specific differences, but that's the general situation.

Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#28

Post by rdudek »

hikz wrote: post #13
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #2

"Europe" competing with a small neighborhood on the west coast where the vast majority of the world's tech capital lives? Sorry I don't see it. Combined with the gloomy pessimism and fear of failure even in Europe's brightest areas (London and Berlin) and the absolute, spineless pathetic nature of European VC's (no not bitter at all ;) Europe will NEVER compete on any meaningful level with Silicon Valley. edit: spell…

Here in Denmark IT companies are extremely elitist. Tons of simple ASP.NET and Java EE jobs require a master's degree in CS or CE. Contrast this with the coding bootcamps and "everyone can learn to code" culture in the US and you can see why innovation is so slow here in Denmark. I am a CS student genuinely interested in compiler construction, distributed systems and programming language design so I don't feel I'm be…

Isn't this more of a supply/demand issue than anything else? Most my friends back in Poland are coders and engineers and they all have master degrees in their fields.

Re: Europe’s Plan to Compete with Silicon Valley

#29

Post by guard-of-terra »

kriro wrote: post #18
dagw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Berlin seems to be the most 'happening' place at the moment

I've always wondered why the Ruhr Valley isn't marketed/established as a techhub of sorts. Well connected infrastructure means it's essentially one big city and there are a few universities with decent tech departments. Berlin makes sense but come on...Valley in the title already ;P

I can't name terribly many examples where rust belt turned new economy hub.

They usually just fade :-/

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