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> However, the comparable US company can invade my market Again talk about "invasion", I'd suggest you don't be so emotional so we can have a fruitful discussi

> However, the comparable US company can invade my market Again talk about "invasion", I'd suggest you don't be so emotional so we can have a fruitful discussion. Aside from that nobody owns the market. You may feel it is an invasion because the barriers are low to do business as a foreigner, but this goes both ways. I successfully sold products in the US as an EU citizen without having an office there, so it is possible. And there are many tech companies from the EU that do the same on a much larger scale. Our problem is really the legal framework, getting loans for starting businesses, getting investments from private investors (this is getting better though) and bureaucracy. In the US you can fail and rebound from it, in most EU countries your life is destroyed because you'll be burdened with debts till the day you leave this earth. (or you lose all wealth you have accumulated to this point) If we in the tech sector weren't so lucky to be able to start businesses with low capital investment I would have never started one because I don't have the rich parents/family that could help me if things go bad. This is the problem from my perspective that we face here and no amount of protectionism will change that. On the other hand I'm truly amazed what risks people take to start businesses in more capital intensive sectors in the EU. I wouldn't have the stomach to do this, to me these people seem almost insane.

scholia 10y ago
All of which may be true but misses the point. The size of the US market, and the availability of venture capital, means that there is no level playing field, and it's therefore almost impossible for most non-US tech companies to compete. For various reasons, this may not wholly apply to Russian and Chinese companies, for example, but it certainly applies in Europe. There are no European tech companies with the size and power of Google , Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, Apple etc. Indeed, there are no European tech companies with the size and power of BMW, VW, and Fiat etc. Nokia, briefly, was a notable exception. If a non-US company is successful, it frequently gets taken over. Nokia, PayPal, Skype, and Minecraft are examples. > no amount of protectionism will change that. I wasn't suggesting protectionism. I was merely pointing out the facts of life in the tech market. Incidentally, none of this is new: it's been happening for decades. US companies also wiped out the European mainframe, minicomputer and PC companies before we got to the point where they are wiping out the internet companies. From the array that included companies such as Siemens, Nixdorf, ICL, Bull, Olivetti, Norsk Data, Acorn, Sinclair and dozens more, really only Siemens has survived, and that's because of its broad industrial base.

scholia 10y ago

All of which may be true but misses the point. The size of the US market, and the availability of venture capital, means that there is no level playing field, and it's therefore almost impossible for most non-US tech companies to compete. For various reasons, this may not wholly apply to Russian and Chinese companies, for example, but it certainly applies in Europe. There are no European tech companies with the size and power of Google , Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, Apple etc. Indeed, there are no European tech companies with the size and power of BMW, VW, and Fiat etc. Nokia, briefly, was a notable exception. If a non-US company is successful, it frequently gets taken over. Nokia, PayPal, Skype, and Minecraft are examples. > no amount of protectionism will change that. I wasn't suggesting protectionism. I was merely pointing out the facts of life in the tech market. Incidentally, none of this is new: it's been happening for decades. US companies also wiped out the European mainframe, minicomputer and PC companies before we got to the point where they are wiping out the internet companies. From the array that included companies such as Siemens, Nixdorf, ICL, Bull, Olivetti, Norsk Data, Acorn, Sinclair and dozens more, really only Siemens has survived, and that's because of its broad industrial base.