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> do you have any examples? Look around in the kitchen: Bosch, Miele, Siemens... > Anything like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Uber, Airbnb, Dr

> do you have any examples? Look around in the kitchen: Bosch, Miele, Siemens... > Anything like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox Mainly retail, marketing, and electronic services, not a lot of consumer electronics. Maybe it's just a misunderstanding of what a "consumer tech company" is. Still, calling an entire country backwards--"So many places being cash-only is very much "WHAT YEAR IS IT??"--because some aspect of life there doesn't conform to your Bay-area-informed sensibilities and assumed life-style is bound to raise some hackles.

TulliusCicero 8y ago
> Bosch, Miele, Siemens... These are "tech companies" the same way General Electric or Maytag or KitchenAid are tech companies. They're not, at least going by the standard definition. I suppose it's possible the definitions differ specifically because Germany has few significant tech companies of the software-and-services variety. > calling an entire country backwards I never did this. I said Germany was specifically backwards when it came to consumer-facing technology, not that Germany was backwards in general. You seem to be reading in my comments what you want to see there. And I used more examples than just the cash-only bit, and I have plenty to spare. The average UX for German websites and apps, for example, is significantly behind the US standard, from what I've seen. Although of course this is a generalization, there's tons of individual variance.
- lispm 8y ago
  > came to consumer-facing technology I don't think this is true. There is a lot of consumer facing technology - but not so much in the form of Internet companies. Cars are full with consumer facing electronics&services and the companies are now similar to 'tech' companies. See Audi, BMW, Mercedes, ... There are few consumer facing things more advanced than for example an S-Class Mercedes. Innovation happens in many places - not just in big companies. The Mittelstand has 1000+ so-called hidden champions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_champions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_champions What Germany lacks are huge Internet companies - but it's not the general lack of innovation, but the scale of the home market&language. The EU market is larger, but there is still the language barrier - the whole EU has the same problem. Plus keep in mind that Germany is just 1/4 of the US in terms of people - but in terms of exports its not that far behind and a lot of that is high-tech, where it makes a lot of money. For example Porsche is probably the most profitable car manufacturer in the world. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-4331194/Porsche-biggest-profit-making-carmaker-world.html http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-4331194/Pors...
  - TulliusCicero 8y ago
    > I don't think this is true. There is a lot of consumer facing technology - but not so much in the form of Internet companies. That's fair, it may be an American thing that when we say "tech companies" we really mean "internet/software/computer companies", Americans wouldn't generally classify Ford or GE or Activision as tech companies, even though they obviously make heavy use of technology. As for the problems of European fragmentation, that obviously doesn't help things. But Spotify seems to be doing just fine, even though its home market is tiny. And WhatsApp is an American company that was able to find vast success overseas, but very little success at home.

TulliusCicero 8y ago

> Bosch, Miele, Siemens... These are "tech companies" the same way General Electric or Maytag or KitchenAid are tech companies. They're not, at least going by the standard definition. I suppose it's possible the definitions differ specifically because Germany has few significant tech companies of the software-and-services variety. > calling an entire country backwards I never did this. I said Germany was specifically backwards when it came to consumer-facing technology, not that Germany was backwards in general. You seem to be reading in my comments what you want to see there. And I used more examples than just the cash-only bit, and I have plenty to spare. The average UX for German websites and apps, for example, is significantly behind the US standard, from what I've seen. Although of course this is a generalization, there's tons of individual variance.

lispm 8y ago
> came to consumer-facing technology I don't think this is true. There is a lot of consumer facing technology - but not so much in the form of Internet companies. Cars are full with consumer facing electronics&services and the companies are now similar to 'tech' companies. See Audi, BMW, Mercedes, ... There are few consumer facing things more advanced than for example an S-Class Mercedes. Innovation happens in many places - not just in big companies. The Mittelstand has 1000+ so-called hidden champions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_champions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_champions What Germany lacks are huge Internet companies - but it's not the general lack of innovation, but the scale of the home market&language. The EU market is larger, but there is still the language barrier - the whole EU has the same problem. Plus keep in mind that Germany is just 1/4 of the US in terms of people - but in terms of exports its not that far behind and a lot of that is high-tech, where it makes a lot of money. For example Porsche is probably the most profitable car manufacturer in the world. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-4331194/Porsche-biggest-profit-making-carmaker-world.html http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-4331194/Pors...
- TulliusCicero 8y ago
  > I don't think this is true. There is a lot of consumer facing technology - but not so much in the form of Internet companies. That's fair, it may be an American thing that when we say "tech companies" we really mean "internet/software/computer companies", Americans wouldn't generally classify Ford or GE or Activision as tech companies, even though they obviously make heavy use of technology. As for the problems of European fragmentation, that obviously doesn't help things. But Spotify seems to be doing just fine, even though its home market is tiny. And WhatsApp is an American company that was able to find vast success overseas, but very little success at home.