Scala's success has technical and socio-economical causes. Here are some more non-technical factors. - The existence of a reasonably well-funded organisation (

Scala's success has technical and socio-economical causes. Here are some more non-technical factors. - The existence of a reasonably well-funded organisation (Typesafe/Lightbend) stewarding Scala was well-received. - Typesafe/Lightbend's independence also helped, in the sense that I cannot see a Scala-like language succeeded if it had come from e.g. Oracle. - Scala's open-sourcing of everything helped. - The well-executed and well-timed Scala-MOOC also helped a great deal. - Odersky's fame and track-record helped too. None of those might have driven your Scala adoption (or mine), but they might have helped others to shift their dev towards Scala.