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[T]o become a global player in software, success in Europe is not enough: You need to be validated in the US. Why? Sure, the US is a big place, so if you’re m

[T]o become a global player in software, success in Europe is not enough: You need to be validated in the US. Why? Sure, the US is a big place, so if you’re making general purpose software aimed at an English-speaking consumer market then you’d probably want to sell there. On the other hand, in the Internet age, the US is still only one potential market, and depending on your niche other markets might be far larger. Moreover, the US legal and regulatory environment, including the intellectual property framework, doesn’t appear to be very welcoming. For some professional insurance policies and the like, I’ve even been asked whether my company did business in the US or simply been told outright that work in the US is excluded from cover. I don’t want to overstate the case, but it would certainly be possible to run a successful global software business, based in Europe or otherwise, without having anything to do with the US at all.

quesera 14y ago
Since you're waiting for someone to ask... How do you define "global"?
- Chris_Newton 14y ago
  I suppose I’d tend to describe a business operating on several continents as “global”, while I’d probably describe a business operating in a few countries within Europe as “European”. I haven’t really thought about where any firm dividing line would fall, and I’m not sure there’s any benefit to having one. I just took exception to the implication that those of us running businesses in Europe were somehow invalid on a global stage without the blessing of the US.
  - quesera 14y ago
    Not invalid. It's a label, for convenience. There is no membership list, except that created by magazines. Americans call the baseball championship the World Series, and people complain occasionally. People also complain that Americans call themselves Americans. People complain a lot. But I think it depends on your market. If you are selling a product or service that is relevant in the US, but you are not selling them in the US, you are ignoring a huge market and you would at least get an asterisk. More importantly, if you're a global business but not addressing the US market, you're leaving a huge hole for someone else to fill, and global corps spend a lot of energy trying not to do that.
danmaz74 14y ago
OP here. My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends. Do you think that, for a Chinese, hearing that software X is the most successful in the USA is the same as hearing that it is the most successful in the EU? I don't think so (whatever I could like to think).
- Chris_Newton 14y ago
  My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends. And my point is that I don’t necessarily accept that premise. I think you’re overgeneralizing. For example, I’m working on a start-up right now that provides an on-line training aid for ballroom dancers. Obviously that’s a niche market, and it turns out that this kind of dancing is insanely popular in some countries and almost unknown in others. Here’s the kicker in this case: there are two major variations of ballroom, which are known as “American style” and “International style”, for much the reasons you’d expect. If you’re looking for trends, you have to take that difference in the prevailing culture into account. Of course most markets won’t have quite such an obvious and US-centric polarisation as we happen to have in our field. I’m just trying to illustrate that in any kind of specialist market, you have to look at the local culture in different places, not just the language they speak and the size of the population.
  - danmaz74 14y ago
    Problem is, that if you have to look at the local culture in different places, becoming globally famous becomes much more difficult anyway. However, I didn't want to mean that it's impossible to become global without being validated in the US. Just that it's much (very much, imho) more difficult.
    - Chris_Newton 14y ago
      Problem is, that if you have to look at the local culture in different places, becoming globally famous becomes much more difficult anyway. Sure. No-one said running a business with a global market was going to be easy. :-)
antninja 14y ago
Yes: while Spotify is trying to win the US market, Deezer, its French competitor, is targeting every other country of the world. They can remain unknown in the USA and still become huge (they're owned by Orange[1] which is also inexistant in the US). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(telecommunications) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(telecommunications)

quesera 14y ago

Since you're waiting for someone to ask... How do you define "global"?

Chris_Newton 14y ago
I suppose I’d tend to describe a business operating on several continents as “global”, while I’d probably describe a business operating in a few countries within Europe as “European”. I haven’t really thought about where any firm dividing line would fall, and I’m not sure there’s any benefit to having one. I just took exception to the implication that those of us running businesses in Europe were somehow invalid on a global stage without the blessing of the US.
- quesera 14y ago
  Not invalid. It's a label, for convenience. There is no membership list, except that created by magazines. Americans call the baseball championship the World Series, and people complain occasionally. People also complain that Americans call themselves Americans. People complain a lot. But I think it depends on your market. If you are selling a product or service that is relevant in the US, but you are not selling them in the US, you are ignoring a huge market and you would at least get an asterisk. More importantly, if you're a global business but not addressing the US market, you're leaving a huge hole for someone else to fill, and global corps spend a lot of energy trying not to do that.

danmaz74 14y ago

OP here. My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends. Do you think that, for a Chinese, hearing that software X is the most successful in the USA is the same as hearing that it is the most successful in the EU? I don't think so (whatever I could like to think).

Chris_Newton 14y ago
My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends. And my point is that I don’t necessarily accept that premise. I think you’re overgeneralizing. For example, I’m working on a start-up right now that provides an on-line training aid for ballroom dancers. Obviously that’s a niche market, and it turns out that this kind of dancing is insanely popular in some countries and almost unknown in others. Here’s the kicker in this case: there are two major variations of ballroom, which are known as “American style” and “International style”, for much the reasons you’d expect. If you’re looking for trends, you have to take that difference in the prevailing culture into account. Of course most markets won’t have quite such an obvious and US-centric polarisation as we happen to have in our field. I’m just trying to illustrate that in any kind of specialist market, you have to look at the local culture in different places, not just the language they speak and the size of the population.
- danmaz74 14y ago
  Problem is, that if you have to look at the local culture in different places, becoming globally famous becomes much more difficult anyway. However, I didn't want to mean that it's impossible to become global without being validated in the US. Just that it's much (very much, imho) more difficult.
  - Chris_Newton 14y ago
    Problem is, that if you have to look at the local culture in different places, becoming globally famous becomes much more difficult anyway. Sure. No-one said running a business with a global market was going to be easy. :-)

antninja 14y ago

Yes: while Spotify is trying to win the US market, Deezer, its French competitor, is targeting every other country of the world. They can remain unknown in the USA and still become huge (they're owned by Orange[1] which is also inexistant in the US). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(telecommunications) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(telecommunications)