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China has a population (and thus potential audience) more than 20 times bigger than France; I think it's a weak argument to claim the two economies would do sim

China has a population (and thus potential audience) more than 20 times bigger than France; I think it's a weak argument to claim the two economies would do similarly without further evidence. Similarly, I have trouble believing the talent is there, having talked to entrepreneurs in France and comparing my experiences there and in Silicon Valley. We might then think to look at companies like VK in Russia, but VK is order of magnitudes away from the success of Tencent.

leppr 8y ago
It probably is a chicken-and-egg problem. Speaking from my own experience, the comparatively very low software engineer salaries in France drove me to freelance (mostly for foreign clients), and later emigration. There is simply very low demand for high-skill software developers. Compare the job ads in Paris vs. NYC for instance: the Paris tech ecosystem is overwhelmingly hiring for dirt cheap roles on outdated technologies. I think it's a mix of culture, and the lower upside French startups can aspire to due to market size and heavy tax/bureaucracy burden.