4 ms·

Funny though. No offense and I love France, and I love Europe (really do!), but FB's and GOOG's and BABA's of the world seem to be ... elsewhere? inverse correl

Funny though. No offense and I love France, and I love Europe (really do!), but FB's and GOOG's and BABA's of the world seem to be ... elsewhere? inverse correlation?

ddorian43 9y ago
If you want huge cash-money you goto USA. For <=$100K/year EU is probably better. I think, not really sure. But first part is true.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  USA seems to run on spectacle. Europe, if one can even process such a mix of cultures as a single entity, seems to abhor spectacle.
cdancette 9y ago
Do you believe big corps makes the economy stronger?
- twelve40 9y ago
  It's kind of irrelevant what I believe because they do own this space by now, for better or worse.
Arnt 9y ago
s/elsewhere/nowhere/ Facebook is really just money, and money doesn't have a location. In terms of offices and employments and locations and blah Facebooks is as big as a middling supermarket chain. Which isn't to say that money is bad or irrelevant or anything. Just that it isn't local in a meaningful way. Facebook is local to wherever that ugly office building is in much the same way that half the world's aircraft are Irish.
ehnto 9y ago
There is probably a place in the world for both, but I would rather smaller, competitive companies, over encumbent monopolies and aggressive investment strategies (build a moat with money and watch everything else fail).
- twelve40 9y ago
  Puzzled why it came across as big vs small cos. Who's been the smaller competitive company out of Europe to take on incumbents? Skype? Dailymotion? Spotify? Blablacar? Seznam.cz? That's... it? Seems a bit underwhelming for 1/2 billion highly educated rich people with fast internet, no?
  - ehnto 9y ago
    I just don't think it matters much that the rest of the world doesn't have massive, unicorn tech companies. I don't believe they are the unwavering innovators we make them out to be. They are amazing in their space, sure, but most tech companies aren't actually that big economically speaking. Silicon Valley has been a playground for venture capitalists and their beneficiaries but I would wager that their influence, while wildly public and social, is only important inside it's bubble, and much of that influence has been frivolous, bought or self inflated. Does anyone really need Facebook or Twitter, or Hootsuite or Gmail? They have only existed for circa ten years each. So I don't believe it's the beacon of social benefit or industrial power. It is certainly a beacon of wild capitalism, excitement and glamour. Whether that's a good thing or not is hotly debated, but a world without SV unicorns would move on just fine.
klibertp 9y ago
What does the existence of mentioned companies have to do with the quality of life in a country? For their employees, maybe, but I don't think FB/GOOG/MSFT employ most of the US population?
- twelve40 9y ago
  Quality of life, of course not. But Europe taking over the world with startups and new tech? ...um I'd love it if it was the case, but it's just not.
  - klibertp 9y ago
    The GP said nothing about startups, though. They were only talking about access to a good Internet connection at a reasonable price. Not to mention, GOOG etc. is not a startup, is it? Anyway, going on this tangent, Europe is different. We've had our share of global domination already (which was expensive and unsustainable in the long run), as well as our share of innovation-by-any-means-necessary (which resulted, among other things, in pollution and WWI). We've decided we don't really need either to live a good life. We can still easily buy whatever innovation you come up with if it proves to be safe and useful. We're happy to leave beta-testing to others.
pjc50 9y ago
France had Minitel before the Internet was a consumer-product. It's true that Europe does "disruptive" startups less, because people don't like being disrupted as much, but it's not true that France is a land of tech-illiterate peasants. It's just that the tech is done in large, somewhat lumbering but nonetheless profitable, megacorps. Orange, Vivendi, Airbus, Bull, ST, and so on.
- twelve40 9y ago
  Why exaggerate with peasants? Also funny down below someone chastises me for apparently rooting for "megacorps"... the irony.

Funny though. No offense and I love France, and I love Europe (really do!), but FB's and GOOG's and BABA's of the world seem to be ... elsewhere? inverse correlation?

ddorian43 9y ago

If you want huge cash-money you goto USA. For <=$100K/year EU is probably better. I think, not really sure. But first part is true.

digi_owl 9y ago
USA seems to run on spectacle. Europe, if one can even process such a mix of cultures as a single entity, seems to abhor spectacle.

cdancette 9y ago

Do you believe big corps makes the economy stronger?

twelve40 9y ago
It's kind of irrelevant what I believe because they do own this space by now, for better or worse.

Arnt 9y ago

s/elsewhere/nowhere/ Facebook is really just money, and money doesn't have a location. In terms of offices and employments and locations and blah Facebooks is as big as a middling supermarket chain. Which isn't to say that money is bad or irrelevant or anything. Just that it isn't local in a meaningful way. Facebook is local to wherever that ugly office building is in much the same way that half the world's aircraft are Irish.

ehnto 9y ago

There is probably a place in the world for both, but I would rather smaller, competitive companies, over encumbent monopolies and aggressive investment strategies (build a moat with money and watch everything else fail).

twelve40 9y ago
Puzzled why it came across as big vs small cos. Who's been the smaller competitive company out of Europe to take on incumbents? Skype? Dailymotion? Spotify? Blablacar? Seznam.cz? That's... it? Seems a bit underwhelming for 1/2 billion highly educated rich people with fast internet, no?
- ehnto 9y ago
  I just don't think it matters much that the rest of the world doesn't have massive, unicorn tech companies. I don't believe they are the unwavering innovators we make them out to be. They are amazing in their space, sure, but most tech companies aren't actually that big economically speaking. Silicon Valley has been a playground for venture capitalists and their beneficiaries but I would wager that their influence, while wildly public and social, is only important inside it's bubble, and much of that influence has been frivolous, bought or self inflated. Does anyone really need Facebook or Twitter, or Hootsuite or Gmail? They have only existed for circa ten years each. So I don't believe it's the beacon of social benefit or industrial power. It is certainly a beacon of wild capitalism, excitement and glamour. Whether that's a good thing or not is hotly debated, but a world without SV unicorns would move on just fine.

klibertp 9y ago

What does the existence of mentioned companies have to do with the quality of life in a country? For their employees, maybe, but I don't think FB/GOOG/MSFT employ most of the US population?

twelve40 9y ago
Quality of life, of course not. But Europe taking over the world with startups and new tech? ...um I'd love it if it was the case, but it's just not.
- klibertp 9y ago
  The GP said nothing about startups, though. They were only talking about access to a good Internet connection at a reasonable price. Not to mention, GOOG etc. is not a startup, is it? Anyway, going on this tangent, Europe is different. We've had our share of global domination already (which was expensive and unsustainable in the long run), as well as our share of innovation-by-any-means-necessary (which resulted, among other things, in pollution and WWI). We've decided we don't really need either to live a good life. We can still easily buy whatever innovation you come up with if it proves to be safe and useful. We're happy to leave beta-testing to others.

pjc50 9y ago

France had Minitel before the Internet was a consumer-product. It's true that Europe does "disruptive" startups less, because people don't like being disrupted as much, but it's not true that France is a land of tech-illiterate peasants. It's just that the tech is done in large, somewhat lumbering but nonetheless profitable, megacorps. Orange, Vivendi, Airbus, Bull, ST, and so on.

twelve40 9y ago
Why exaggerate with peasants? Also funny down below someone chastises me for apparently rooting for "megacorps"... the irony.