5 ms·
"If a startup wants to reach a similar customer base as a startup in the US it will always have to deal with 50 different markets with 50 different legal system
by adamt 13y ago
"If a startup wants to reach a similar customer base as a startup in the US it will always have to deal with 50 different markets with 50 different legal systems, 50 different marketing channels, and 50 different social networks."
* You don't need 50 markets to get to the same size, you need 5. The population of the just the 5 main Western European economies: UK (63m), German (82m), France (66m), Italy (61m) and Spain (47m) totals (317m) which is more than the US (314m). The GDP per capita in the US is slightly higher ($49k in US versus $41k in Germany, $39k UK, $40k France) but at roughly the same level.
* Under EU laws, you have free movement of goods and mostly (almost) a single legal system covering things like e-commerce.
* Language is not really a barrier. For B2B stuff, depending upon your industry, then English alone is probably sufficient. Translating a product or marketing material is hardly a difficult task these days.
* Assuming by social networks you mean things like Facebook/Linkedin/Twitter, then they are the same across the EU.
- adventured 13y agoYour GDP per capita numbers do not appear to be accurate. There is a substantial difference in the per capita incomes; off the top of my head I think the countries you list are about 1/3 lower (or their per capita has to climb 50% to match the US). This by itself is a big deal when sizing up a market. US: $51,700; Germany: $38,666; UK: $36,569; France: $35,295; Spain: $30,058; Italy: $29,812 The EU is $31,571 (40% lower) It's also worth noting that you can relatively easily reach into the wealthy Canadian market if you're targeting the US; Canada's economy is larger than Spain's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP... https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
- adamt 13y agoThe numbers you cite are PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) which is not really relevant to this discussion about the size of a market as it weights GDP by cost of items/living etc. Mine were straight from Google (e.g.https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=uk+gdp+per+capita+&oq=uK+GDP+per&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l3j69i57j0l2.1424j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=91&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=uk+gdp+per+capita+&oq=uK+G...) ) For the relevant Wikipedia link, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomin...
- cmarschner 13y agoWith "social network" i ment the "real" network, not the technology (which is the same as you point out). People in Germany talk less to people in Poland, for example, than people in neighboring US states. Citation missing.