3 ms·
My take: 1. Software industry is partially an oligarchy. A few companies make a huge amount of money. A large amount of companies make less but still a sizeabl
by worldsayshi 6y ago
My take:
1. Software industry is partially an oligarchy. A few companies make a huge amount of money. A large amount of companies make less but still a sizeable amount of money.
2. The amount of developers needed in the really wealthy companies is limited. The wealthy companies don't need to compete that much for talent but they also don't need to keep down the salaries that much.
3. There is a cost associated with diversifying to different countries. If you don't need to, why would you?
The market overall has about medium buying power. A small part of the market has huge buying power. The wealthy companies end up in a few places and don't have a limited interest in diversifying geographically.
- worldsayshi 6y agoTypo: The wealthy companies end up in a few places and don't have a limited interest in diversifying geographically. -> The wealthy companies end up in a few places and have a limited interest in diversifying geographically.
- titanomachy 6y agoThis is the best explanation I've been able to come up with as well. Other explanations don't seem to explain the massive difference in compensation between the US and e.g. Canada, which has a similar level of development, education, and per-capita wealth. Google[1] doesn't exist at a large enough scale in Canada to shift the market meaningfully. Canadian companies simply aren't profitable enough to even contemplate paying like Google. [1] Using "Google" here as a proxy for companies that pay like Google.