Remember, software has no (or very little) marginal cost. Software businesses only become insanely profitable at scale. The kind of scale Microsoft, Google and

Remember, software has no (or very little) marginal cost. Software businesses only become insanely profitable at scale. The kind of scale Microsoft, Google and others have. A single percentage point improvement can pay your salary. In Europe we lack software companies of such scale. Why? Not too long ago going global from the middle of nowhere was not an option. Companies would saturate their local market and fail to grow across borders. I'd venture to say this is due to the (1) lack of international sales experience, (2) different laws / work practices elsewhere, and (3) language barriers. I know 3 companies doing accounting software in Estonia with a population of 1.4 million. These companies know the business better then anybody else and the market is too small for any of the big players to consider. Similar patterns can be seen across industries.