5 ms·

Why are most innovative consumer products and software from the US, would be a more relevant and contemporary question.

Sophistifunk 5y ago
A very large native consumer audience that (more or less) all speak a single language goes a long way. You can get access to a lot of customers before you need to do anything international.
- adrusi 5y ago
  You don't have to be in the US for it to be easy to initially target just the US market though.
  - IdiocyInAction 5y ago
    It sure helps though. You can't just stroll into the US as a foreign entrepreneur (unless you are very wealthy already or well-connected) and sell your product.
    - wink 5y ago
      Mhm, the last 2 German startups I worked for basically went to the US very quickly after originally targeting the German market and if you're "just" putting up a subsidy company while employing Americans for sales and keeping development where you started it doesn't seem too bad.
      - TMWNN 5y ago
        >Mhm, the last 2 German startups I worked for basically went to the US very quickly after originally targeting the German market Same thing happens in video games. Consider French studio Dontnod; other than its first game Remember Me (set in a futuristic setting), five of its six other games (including the Life is Strange series) are set in contemporary US and the sixth in 1920s London. The US/English-speaking market is just too big to bypass unless there's a compelling reason. (A good example of a compelling reason is fellow French studio Asobo, which put out the widely praised A Plague Tale set in France during the Black Plague. A sequel is coming, but the main bread and butter of the studio nowadays is Flight Simulator 2020, which is "set" nowhere and everywhere.)
      - suction 5y ago
        In most areas of the German economy, IT is still seen as a necessary evil to be able to run "real" businesses like auto manufacturing. With the success of big American social media companies like Facebook, the public mindset has started changing, but on a glacial timeline - too little, too late. German internet startups are comparable to their American counterparts nowadays. But the majority of IT jobs aren't at startups, but in other industries - and they still suffer from the image of being a necessary evil rather than an asset. One example is the desolate state of car-entertainment software even at the luxury brands. No German car manufacturer could come up with something like CarPlay or Android Auto. Not because they don't have the money to acquire the talent, but because of a "what we have is good enough" mindset.
rejectedandsad 5y ago
America is exceptional. There’s a good reason why Jobs was Syrian-American and not Syrian-Japanese or even Syrian-French. Japanese consumer growth stalled during their lost decade while Clintonomics gave us a boom. Americans are significantly wealthier than their Japanese or Western European counterparts, with the only exception maybe being Norway. A large, prosperous, and open society breeds innovation.
- croes 5y ago
  >Americans are significantly wealthier Mean or average?
  - p1necone 5y ago
    I think you meant to ask mean or median? (To me 'average' means mean, median OR mode. Although in general usage often specifically refers to mean).
  - rejectedandsad 5y ago
    Mean and median are higher by most accounts, mean significantly moreso.
  - IdiocyInAction 5y ago
    If you mean median or average, both actually. You have to quite poor to be worse off (on average) in the US than in Europe (don't know about Japan); last time I checked it was something like the 10-20th percentile. FWIW, I am European, so no bias.
    - ptr 5y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_... The median net worth seems to be higher in Western/Northern Europe than the US though. Eastern Europe pulls down the statistics quite a bit. Canada also has a higher median. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_of_median_wealth_per_adult_by_country._Credit_Suisse._2021_publication.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_of_median_wea...
croes 5y ago
High output of consumer products in general, which unfortunately also comes with a high consumption of resources. Same with software.
axelroze 5y ago
From California to be more precise. USA is huge and there are a multitude of 'nowheres' like small factory towns that do not participate a lot in this innovation process. This then ties into something more important that geography. Culture and freedom from physical, psychological and monetary oppression. It is not that people in rest of the world or rest of USA are less smart on average. It is that they live in a system in which some form of oppression exists if someone higher up in the food chain learns of their success and starts beating them down so they never reach greatness as in California. This someone higher up does not even have to be the government or the local mob. Could also be family/relatives and/or cultural standards (better safe than risky, rich is evil, distribute your riches to the poor ASAP etc)
- Miiko 5y ago
  > It is not that people in rest of the world or rest of USA are less smart on average. It is that they live in a system in which some form of oppression exists if someone higher up in the food chain learns of their success and starts beating them down so they... ... move to California. Well, at least I did ;).

A very large native consumer audience that (more or less) all speak a single language goes a long way. You can get access to a lot of customers before you need to do anything international.

adrusi 5y ago
You don't have to be in the US for it to be easy to initially target just the US market though.
- IdiocyInAction 5y ago
  It sure helps though. You can't just stroll into the US as a foreign entrepreneur (unless you are very wealthy already or well-connected) and sell your product.
  - wink 5y ago
    Mhm, the last 2 German startups I worked for basically went to the US very quickly after originally targeting the German market and if you're "just" putting up a subsidy company while employing Americans for sales and keeping development where you started it doesn't seem too bad.
    - TMWNN 5y ago
      >Mhm, the last 2 German startups I worked for basically went to the US very quickly after originally targeting the German market Same thing happens in video games. Consider French studio Dontnod; other than its first game Remember Me (set in a futuristic setting), five of its six other games (including the Life is Strange series) are set in contemporary US and the sixth in 1920s London. The US/English-speaking market is just too big to bypass unless there's a compelling reason. (A good example of a compelling reason is fellow French studio Asobo, which put out the widely praised A Plague Tale set in France during the Black Plague. A sequel is coming, but the main bread and butter of the studio nowadays is Flight Simulator 2020, which is "set" nowhere and everywhere.)
    - suction 5y ago
      In most areas of the German economy, IT is still seen as a necessary evil to be able to run "real" businesses like auto manufacturing. With the success of big American social media companies like Facebook, the public mindset has started changing, but on a glacial timeline - too little, too late. German internet startups are comparable to their American counterparts nowadays. But the majority of IT jobs aren't at startups, but in other industries - and they still suffer from the image of being a necessary evil rather than an asset. One example is the desolate state of car-entertainment software even at the luxury brands. No German car manufacturer could come up with something like CarPlay or Android Auto. Not because they don't have the money to acquire the talent, but because of a "what we have is good enough" mindset.

rejectedandsad 5y ago

America is exceptional. There’s a good reason why Jobs was Syrian-American and not Syrian-Japanese or even Syrian-French. Japanese consumer growth stalled during their lost decade while Clintonomics gave us a boom. Americans are significantly wealthier than their Japanese or Western European counterparts, with the only exception maybe being Norway. A large, prosperous, and open society breeds innovation.

croes 5y ago
>Americans are significantly wealthier Mean or average?
- p1necone 5y ago
  I think you meant to ask mean or median? (To me 'average' means mean, median OR mode. Although in general usage often specifically refers to mean).
- rejectedandsad 5y ago
  Mean and median are higher by most accounts, mean significantly moreso.
- IdiocyInAction 5y ago
  If you mean median or average, both actually. You have to quite poor to be worse off (on average) in the US than in Europe (don't know about Japan); last time I checked it was something like the 10-20th percentile. FWIW, I am European, so no bias.
  - ptr 5y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_... The median net worth seems to be higher in Western/Northern Europe than the US though. Eastern Europe pulls down the statistics quite a bit. Canada also has a higher median. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_of_median_wealth_per_adult_by_country._Credit_Suisse._2021_publication.png https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_map_of_median_wea...

croes 5y ago

High output of consumer products in general, which unfortunately also comes with a high consumption of resources. Same with software.

axelroze 5y ago

From California to be more precise. USA is huge and there are a multitude of 'nowheres' like small factory towns that do not participate a lot in this innovation process. This then ties into something more important that geography. Culture and freedom from physical, psychological and monetary oppression. It is not that people in rest of the world or rest of USA are less smart on average. It is that they live in a system in which some form of oppression exists if someone higher up in the food chain learns of their success and starts beating them down so they never reach greatness as in California. This someone higher up does not even have to be the government or the local mob. Could also be family/relatives and/or cultural standards (better safe than risky, rich is evil, distribute your riches to the poor ASAP etc)

Miiko 5y ago
> It is not that people in rest of the world or rest of USA are less smart on average. It is that they live in a system in which some form of oppression exists if someone higher up in the food chain learns of their success and starts beating them down so they... ... move to California. Well, at least I did ;).