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The US has easy economies of scale for many types of business due to its large population. If you come up with a successful business model in one state, there i

The US has easy economies of scale for many types of business due to its large population. If you come up with a successful business model in one state, there is a low barrier to expanding it. Trivial example, if you manufacture a successful toy. This might explain eventual domination of aeronautical engines (Rolls Royce) and home computing platforms (Acorn, Spectrum, etc). This does not always work in the favour of the US. I have worked in a field where have I repeatedly seen US businesses try to bring their model to Europe, buoyed by optimism from earlier expansion in the US. The European structure of this domain is simply different, leading to the new entrants being doomed before they have even opened their office.

LeonidasXIV 5y ago
> The US has easy economies of scale for many types of business due to its large population. If you come up with a successful business model in one state, there is a low barrier to expanding it. The UK had access to such a market and was quite a large force in certain sectors like finance but then decided to just burn all bridges. Of course the challenge in the EU is a big higher because of different languages and possibly different cultural attitudes but the UK is now learning how much harder things were back in the good old days.
- bserge 5y ago
  UK businesses never bothered much with the EU, anyway. It's ridiculous. There's big demand for cheese, ales, biscuits, even pasties, all over Europe. Yet many farms and companies with an online store didn't even ship EU-wide. Why, just why? Then they blame Germany for dominating. Well, yeah, they actually come and advertise their shit in other countries.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    US has advantage of a single postal service, when I post something to Aberdeen it's £2, if i post it to Paris it's £20 and takes an extra week
    - bserge 5y ago
      Please. I had a small business in the UK, I shipped EU wide. Shipping to EU is slightly more expensive, and takes an extra day or two for like South Italy and Romania. No one ever complained about having to pay for shipping (yeah, the buyer pays, shocking), nothing ever got lost.
nly 5y ago
For a lot of UK businesses expanding in to the US is equally as difficult. Revolut (the UKs biggest fintech unicorn) has been plotting expansion in to the US, and making it top priority, for a while now. I'm skeptical. If they can't do it, who can?

LeonidasXIV 5y ago

> The US has easy economies of scale for many types of business due to its large population. If you come up with a successful business model in one state, there is a low barrier to expanding it. The UK had access to such a market and was quite a large force in certain sectors like finance but then decided to just burn all bridges. Of course the challenge in the EU is a big higher because of different languages and possibly different cultural attitudes but the UK is now learning how much harder things were back in the good old days.

bserge 5y ago
UK businesses never bothered much with the EU, anyway. It's ridiculous. There's big demand for cheese, ales, biscuits, even pasties, all over Europe. Yet many farms and companies with an online store didn't even ship EU-wide. Why, just why? Then they blame Germany for dominating. Well, yeah, they actually come and advertise their shit in other countries.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  US has advantage of a single postal service, when I post something to Aberdeen it's £2, if i post it to Paris it's £20 and takes an extra week
  - bserge 5y ago
    Please. I had a small business in the UK, I shipped EU wide. Shipping to EU is slightly more expensive, and takes an extra day or two for like South Italy and Romania. No one ever complained about having to pay for shipping (yeah, the buyer pays, shocking), nothing ever got lost.

nly 5y ago

For a lot of UK businesses expanding in to the US is equally as difficult. Revolut (the UKs biggest fintech unicorn) has been plotting expansion in to the US, and making it top priority, for a while now. I'm skeptical. If they can't do it, who can?