4 ms·

German as a natural barrier to entry

8 points by NiklasR 15y ago

mhd 15y ago
I don't buy that argument. Sure, German isn't the easiest language, and most Germans aren't willing to use a English-only service. Still, there's enough translators and copywriters available, never mind that anything big enough will probably have a local support team anyway. And the market seems big enough to justify that investment. If that argument would fly, is France any better off? About 4 times as many high school students learning it, roughly comparable market… And I'd need to see actual evidence for the "attention to detail" argument. Germans are prone to be portrayed as perfectionists, now apparently for consumption, too. Little of that is true (well, at least more true than for Americans). After all, Germans are buying MS Windows, too… So in my opinion, the added localization effort and the fictitious "cultural divide" aren't the true reasons for the copycats gaining ground. It's mostly a lack of focus on foreign markets in the first place. The US is a huge market, and by the time most companies try to expand their horizon in a serious manner, a ripoff has its chance and will make some money. Still, their staying power is pretty limited, especially if the original has a certain "brand". I remember everyon inviting me to "StudiVZ", the blatant Facebook clone. Nowadays I'm not even sure if that's still around…
- NiklasR 15y ago
  The article was intentionally simplified and while I think you raise valid points it is interesting how few US firms have actually entered the market. If they did, it usually took quite a long time or happened through an acquisition, which incentivises start-ups to use existing concepts. I think US firms should enter Germany earlier and leverage the talent that is already available. At the same time I would like to see more investors seed-fund German entrepreneurs to foster true innovation (after all for example mp3 comes from Germany).
  - mhd 15y ago
    Don't most of the big companies have German offerings? It's mostly the startups in their initial stages that don't move abroad (at all, not just Germany). And a lot of that is due to legal and financial issues. We probably need a few startups in the internationalization sector to alleviate that. I don't see anything specific against moving business into Germany, it's just that right now Germany has some pretty bad copycats, which makes this an issue. Following the blog post, I'd expect to see companies moving to Spain or France before Germany, and I didn't really notice this as a pattern. It's not moving out of the US at all that's the problem (any Canadians want to chime in?). And yes, a more lively startup community in Germany (and Europe in general) would be great.
mech4bg 15y ago
How is German a particularly difficult language? It's relatively simple and very similar to English - some things are more complicated, some are simpler, but as mhd says it's a moot point due to local translation skills, etc. I think he's on the right track actually - in Australia it's a similar scene, whereby local 'copycats' get in first and steal the market share, simply because the US companies are focusing on their local market first. In some cases they have consolidated their position and are still the market leader despite the US originator moving into the Australian market (e.g. Scoopon vs Groupon) but in other cases the US company destroyed the local one (e.g. eBay, which had quite a battle on their hands to win the auction market here, but eventually prevailed - I can't even remember who the other people were now!) Also I'm not even sure there's really a significant 'cultural divide' between Germany and the US anyway. US culture flourishes there.

8 points by NiklasR 15y ago

mhd 15y ago

I don't buy that argument. Sure, German isn't the easiest language, and most Germans aren't willing to use a English-only service. Still, there's enough translators and copywriters available, never mind that anything big enough will probably have a local support team anyway. And the market seems big enough to justify that investment. If that argument would fly, is France any better off? About 4 times as many high school students learning it, roughly comparable market… And I'd need to see actual evidence for the "attention to detail" argument. Germans are prone to be portrayed as perfectionists, now apparently for consumption, too. Little of that is true (well, at least more true than for Americans). After all, Germans are buying MS Windows, too… So in my opinion, the added localization effort and the fictitious "cultural divide" aren't the true reasons for the copycats gaining ground. It's mostly a lack of focus on foreign markets in the first place. The US is a huge market, and by the time most companies try to expand their horizon in a serious manner, a ripoff has its chance and will make some money. Still, their staying power is pretty limited, especially if the original has a certain "brand". I remember everyon inviting me to "StudiVZ", the blatant Facebook clone. Nowadays I'm not even sure if that's still around…

NiklasR 15y ago
The article was intentionally simplified and while I think you raise valid points it is interesting how few US firms have actually entered the market. If they did, it usually took quite a long time or happened through an acquisition, which incentivises start-ups to use existing concepts. I think US firms should enter Germany earlier and leverage the talent that is already available. At the same time I would like to see more investors seed-fund German entrepreneurs to foster true innovation (after all for example mp3 comes from Germany).
- mhd 15y ago
  Don't most of the big companies have German offerings? It's mostly the startups in their initial stages that don't move abroad (at all, not just Germany). And a lot of that is due to legal and financial issues. We probably need a few startups in the internationalization sector to alleviate that. I don't see anything specific against moving business into Germany, it's just that right now Germany has some pretty bad copycats, which makes this an issue. Following the blog post, I'd expect to see companies moving to Spain or France before Germany, and I didn't really notice this as a pattern. It's not moving out of the US at all that's the problem (any Canadians want to chime in?). And yes, a more lively startup community in Germany (and Europe in general) would be great.

mech4bg 15y ago

How is German a particularly difficult language? It's relatively simple and very similar to English - some things are more complicated, some are simpler, but as mhd says it's a moot point due to local translation skills, etc. I think he's on the right track actually - in Australia it's a similar scene, whereby local 'copycats' get in first and steal the market share, simply because the US companies are focusing on their local market first. In some cases they have consolidated their position and are still the market leader despite the US originator moving into the Australian market (e.g. Scoopon vs Groupon) but in other cases the US company destroyed the local one (e.g. eBay, which had quite a battle on their hands to win the auction market here, but eventually prevailed - I can't even remember who the other people were now!) Also I'm not even sure there's really a significant 'cultural divide' between Germany and the US anyway. US culture flourishes there.