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It's not just France but Europe in general doesn't have much foot into high growth businesses that are colloquially called "Tech". UK is a superpower in Europe
by mrtksn 4y ago
It's not just France but Europe in general doesn't have much foot into high growth businesses that are colloquially called "Tech". UK is a superpower in Europe in that regard, always was and will continue to be.
The reasons are a never ending debate, everyone(including me) likes to explain it from their own world view. If you are libertarian you will probably say because it's the big government, high taxes, workers rights, unions etc. but I personally don't like these explanations because they fail to explain why the distribution is not homogeneous within those legislative regions. So in reality, it's not that US and UK dominate the "tech" but it's SV and London. For whatever reason it is, you cannot do some tricks and have SV in Detroit and London in the Balkans.
- timthorn 4y agoBut it isn't just London - the UK has substantial tech clusters in Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Cambridge etc. I'd posit that the BBC Computer Literacy Project, Acorn and Sinclair were central to seeding the right skills base in enough of the population to build a sustainable industry.
- mrtksn 4y agoOf course, so does Europe has tech clusters but all the difference comes from the concentrated one and the continental Europe doesn't have one. Europe does have a lot of tech companies and startups, especially EU is a rich place with a lot of innovation and high tech business happening. What EU lacks is unicorns.
- hnhg 4y agoI cannot take seriously the comparison between SV and London. Their tech cultures aren't even remotely the same, and never will be.
- mrtksn 4y agoWhat comparison?
- hnhg 4y agoSorry, it was late and I was tired. Also my tone wasn't so constructive and I'd rephrase my original comment if I were to write it now. By "comparison", I meant grouping SV and London together. They're worlds apart in my experience. The UK is much closer to Europe (particularly in VC culture) than the USA, to my mind.