Europe, the always future
"And there is nobody better suited to type an item so predictable and misleading than John Markoff, a master of the empty trend piece whose crowning glory was to land the term web 3.0 on the front page of the Sunday New York Times." Ouch! Who said that? Read on...
Although it snowed in Munich yesterday, the sun shone for the organizers of this week's excellent DLD conference, for when they opened their virtual New York Times, there was a front-page story (the ultimate accolade!) saying that "Digital Life Design, has become a showcase for a range of European entrepreneurs who have taken the start-up culture pioneered in Silicon Valley as a template and are successfully transplanting it here."
Provocatively, John Markhoff's story was headlined, "Move Over Silicon Valley, Here Come European Start-Ups". And, according to Markoff, DLD provided "ample evidence that Silicon Valley's dominance of Internet-style technology innovation is waning." Comforting news, that, for Don Rumsfeld's "Old Europeans" because as Rainy Day noted on 17 January, Europe's been at the rear of Web 2.0 for so long that it's getting embarrassing. We also quoted Loïc Le Meur (now blogging from Davos) saying that he wanted "Europe to concentrate less on the past and more on the future". Said Loïc, "We need more people taking risks, we need more entrepreneurs, we need more business angels, more VCs, more M&As and more companies going public." But Dave Barnes then spoiled the show by saying: "Not a chance. Culture is against it. Laws are against it. The smart ones will emigrate to the USA."
One who did leave Europe for the USA to find web fame and fortune there is Nick Denton, and in a withering post yesterday, he rubbished Markoff's argument in the most cruel of ways: by contrasting what he wrote from Munich with what he wrote six years ago: "Europe's Technological Elite Discreetly Grins at U.S. Dot-Com Woes: In their place is a resurgent high-technology Europe, feeling increasingly confident, buoyed by a strengthened economy, and less inclined to take a backseat to the United States in technology leadership. [John Markoff, January 2001].
Savagely, Denton rounds off by saying: "Markoff should know, from his own clips, at least, that Europe is the high-tech hub of the future -- and always will be." Note to DLD organizers: Get Nick Denton a 2008 invitation.
Comments
"We need more people taking risks, we need more entrepreneurs, we need more business angels, more VCs, more M&As and more companies going public."
Sounds good to me. But how exactly do you grow entrepreneurs in a business climate like France's? If you have a population that is deeply risk-adverse and regards free market capitalism as red in tooth and nail, you're not going to produce a lot of risk takers.
And this is a problem that is going to get worse as the European population ages. Old people may or may not be wise, but they're not exactly famous for bold innovation and risk-taking.
I have noticed that leftists tend to attribute the whole Celtic Tiger phenomenon to EU subsidies, while conservatives point to US investment and Ireland's low corporate tax rate. Now, the whole thing is very complex and I'm no economist, but I would imagine that all of those things factored into it. However, another thing that seems like an obvious plus but I rarely see mentioned is the fact that Ireland had the youngest adult population in the EU in the 1990's. A country filled with a bunch of bright young 20-somethings with lots of energy sure seems like a better place to base a company than a country filled with graybeards who are set in their ways. (I should add that I myself am no spring chicken and would much rather curl up with a book and a glass of wine nowadays than dance on a table at a nightclub - I don't want to fall and break a hip!)
Posted by: Donna | January 25, 2007 11:55 PM