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Like it or not, the West generally is in a state of decline. "In 2000, Europe had 41 of the biggest 100 companies. Now it only has 15. A 63% decline in just tw

Like it or not, the West generally is in a state of decline. "In 2000, Europe had 41 of the biggest 100 companies. Now it only has 15. A 63% decline in just two decades. The Economist says the "most striking" reason is the lack of successful startups. 63% declines are something you can't repeat too many times without creating the kind of situation historians give names to. Two more such periods, and Europe only has 2 of the top 100 companies." https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1400777576965185539 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1400777576965185539

raverbashing 4y ago
I'm not sure this is a very good measure. It is worrying, for sure, but the top 100 is cramped I'd argue the total market cap (or maybe revenue, etc) of top-500 might be a better measure. Surely it has gone down but maybe by less Also China's growth was the exceptional thing here (but yeah European management of those classic big companies fumbled a lot)
- onetokeoverthe 4y ago
  [dead]
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Market cap wise Europe looks equally worse. The market cap of the US top tech companies is greater than EU's tech sector combined. Ouch! Europe's biggest tech companies leaders in the field are Airbus, SAP and ASML.
  - hef19898 4y ago
    Market cap is, IMHO, not the best measure so. Revenue or market share seems a bit better. As an example, Japanese companies used to have huge market caps in the 90s, today not so much. Those companies still exist so, and are quite large players in their fields. And to be honest, Google is more ad-tech then anything else, Netflix is entertainment. Amazon is, depending on how you measure it, 50% retail / logistics and 50% AWS. Which leaves MS and Apple as true tech companies, while Facebook is social media. Retail, as in eCommerce, was ground breaking tech when Amazon started. Today, comparable tech is available from vendors like Shopify (web shops) and WiseTech (logistics and fulfillment). Social media was ground breaking when Facebook and MySpace came along, now it is more about selling ads then anything else. Streaming was ground breaking when YouTube and Netflix came around, now there are countless streaming services. And some of the older ones, looking at you Amazon, resembles traditional TV a lot. After all they sell ads now between streaming (FreeVee or what's it called) and broadcast new episodes on specific days, looking at you Amazon and Disney.
- MrBuddyCasino 4y ago
  The problem is not that big corporations fail - they inevitably will and they arguably should. The problem is that there are no new ones, or at least not enough to make up for the losses.
  - raverbashing 4y ago
    Yes, however there are a couple of spin-offs and rearrangements that happen before the "main company" failing Even in the case of Philips it spun off NXP (which is not going great neither to be fair), ASML, Signify (lightning business etc) Siemens also dug their own hole in severe mismanagement ("old people" running the show) and I think there's not much more left there
    - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
      >NXP (which is not going great neither to be fair) Out of curiosity, why do you think that?
      - raverbashing 4y ago
        I stand corrected, maybe I had read a slightly older FY results https://media.nxp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nxp-semiconductors-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2022 https://media.nxp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nxp... (though Qualcomm has aprox 3x the quarterly revenue)
        ChuckNorris89 4y ago
        QUALCOMM sells phone modems which is a much more lucrative business than NXP selling automotive chips and generic ARM microcontrollers.
        raverbashing 4y ago
        And NXP sold those (up to 3G models IIRC). https://www.nxp.com/products/no-longer-manufactured/3g-single-core-modem-platform:MXC300-30 https://www.nxp.com/products/no-longer-manufactured/3g-singl... Why are they not selling anymore? https://www.nxp.com/products/wireless:WIRELESS-CONNECTIVITY https://www.nxp.com/products/wireless:WIRELESS-CONNECTIVITY
geysersam 4y ago
This measurement is relative. Does it indicate decline in Europe or development in Asia? It's unreasonable to expect a region with 1/16 of the world population to have 4/10 of the largest companies in the long term. Also, is "company size" really that good a measure of economic success? Seems like it could have to do with the local conditions encouraging smaller economic entities.

raverbashing 4y ago

I'm not sure this is a very good measure. It is worrying, for sure, but the top 100 is cramped I'd argue the total market cap (or maybe revenue, etc) of top-500 might be a better measure. Surely it has gone down but maybe by less Also China's growth was the exceptional thing here (but yeah European management of those classic big companies fumbled a lot)

onetokeoverthe 4y ago
[dead]
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Market cap wise Europe looks equally worse. The market cap of the US top tech companies is greater than EU's tech sector combined. Ouch! Europe's biggest tech companies leaders in the field are Airbus, SAP and ASML.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Market cap is, IMHO, not the best measure so. Revenue or market share seems a bit better. As an example, Japanese companies used to have huge market caps in the 90s, today not so much. Those companies still exist so, and are quite large players in their fields. And to be honest, Google is more ad-tech then anything else, Netflix is entertainment. Amazon is, depending on how you measure it, 50% retail / logistics and 50% AWS. Which leaves MS and Apple as true tech companies, while Facebook is social media. Retail, as in eCommerce, was ground breaking tech when Amazon started. Today, comparable tech is available from vendors like Shopify (web shops) and WiseTech (logistics and fulfillment). Social media was ground breaking when Facebook and MySpace came along, now it is more about selling ads then anything else. Streaming was ground breaking when YouTube and Netflix came around, now there are countless streaming services. And some of the older ones, looking at you Amazon, resembles traditional TV a lot. After all they sell ads now between streaming (FreeVee or what's it called) and broadcast new episodes on specific days, looking at you Amazon and Disney.
MrBuddyCasino 4y ago
The problem is not that big corporations fail - they inevitably will and they arguably should. The problem is that there are no new ones, or at least not enough to make up for the losses.
- raverbashing 4y ago
  Yes, however there are a couple of spin-offs and rearrangements that happen before the "main company" failing Even in the case of Philips it spun off NXP (which is not going great neither to be fair), ASML, Signify (lightning business etc) Siemens also dug their own hole in severe mismanagement ("old people" running the show) and I think there's not much more left there
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    >NXP (which is not going great neither to be fair) Out of curiosity, why do you think that?
    - raverbashing 4y ago
      I stand corrected, maybe I had read a slightly older FY results https://media.nxp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nxp-semiconductors-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2022 https://media.nxp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/nxp... (though Qualcomm has aprox 3x the quarterly revenue)
      - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
        QUALCOMM sells phone modems which is a much more lucrative business than NXP selling automotive chips and generic ARM microcontrollers.
        raverbashing 4y ago
        And NXP sold those (up to 3G models IIRC). https://www.nxp.com/products/no-longer-manufactured/3g-single-core-modem-platform:MXC300-30 https://www.nxp.com/products/no-longer-manufactured/3g-singl... Why are they not selling anymore? https://www.nxp.com/products/wireless:WIRELESS-CONNECTIVITY https://www.nxp.com/products/wireless:WIRELESS-CONNECTIVITY

geysersam 4y ago

This measurement is relative. Does it indicate decline in Europe or development in Asia? It's unreasonable to expect a region with 1/16 of the world population to have 4/10 of the largest companies in the long term. Also, is "company size" really that good a measure of economic success? Seems like it could have to do with the local conditions encouraging smaller economic entities.