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Beautiful... except it's not true. A quick google search through negocios.pt (probably the biggest Portuguese business newspaper): * Whatsapp: 41 results * O

Beautiful... except it's not true. A quick google search through negocios.pt (probably the biggest Portuguese business newspaper): * Whatsapp: 41 results * Ono: 4 results Europeans love success stories as much as Americans, but we're too American-focused to notice our own success stories.

lifeisstillgood 13y ago
> Europeans love success stories as much as Americans, but we're too American-focused to notice our own success stories. this. Plus, to be fair, I have never heard of ONO, mostly cos no matter how much of a single European market we are, we are not a single European language, so we are not a single European news feed.
- _delirium 13y ago
  Yeah, I think in Denmark the media mainly notices American and Danish business, and not as much those from rest of Europe, unless they do something that really impacts people. People definitely care about what Danish businesses are doing. It's true that monetary success isn't the only measure people care about, e.g. Copenhagen Suborbitals, a nonprofit, gets a ton of startup-like tech press. But people also care about monetary success of Danish businesses. If ONO were a Danish company, it'd be on front pages of newspapers. But it's a Spanish telephone company nobody's heard of, so people aren't really interested. I think part of the WhatsApp news wasn't only the location but the "lightweight" aspect. There was a lot of, "wow a company sold for $16b just by making a phone app?!" By contrast people aren't surprised that classic capital-intensive, "heavyweight" infrastructure companies like telcos can be worth billions. Plus, nobody cares about infrastructure unless it's their own infrastructure. DONG Energy recently sold a minority stake to Goldman Sachs for $2 billion, which made huge news in Denmark, but did anyone else read about it?
  - omegant 13y ago
    The problem is that isn't making the news even in Spain..
    - gmazzotti 13y ago
      When Tuenti (the Facebook of Spain) was sold it was very very covered in the press (in Spain and in all Europe) although it was “only” a 70MM adquisition, is not how big is the sucesss or how much money is done, is how boring or how popular the startup is what makes how much cover the news get.
tete 13y ago
I do not say that you are not right, but I have another possible explanation, which is that US companies might be louder and/or do better marketing. Also yes, Ono is simply less known throughout Europe. Ono as far as I know has now global marketplace, but Whatsapp does.

lifeisstillgood 13y ago

> Europeans love success stories as much as Americans, but we're too American-focused to notice our own success stories. this. Plus, to be fair, I have never heard of ONO, mostly cos no matter how much of a single European market we are, we are not a single European language, so we are not a single European news feed.

_delirium 13y ago
Yeah, I think in Denmark the media mainly notices American and Danish business, and not as much those from rest of Europe, unless they do something that really impacts people. People definitely care about what Danish businesses are doing. It's true that monetary success isn't the only measure people care about, e.g. Copenhagen Suborbitals, a nonprofit, gets a ton of startup-like tech press. But people also care about monetary success of Danish businesses. If ONO were a Danish company, it'd be on front pages of newspapers. But it's a Spanish telephone company nobody's heard of, so people aren't really interested. I think part of the WhatsApp news wasn't only the location but the "lightweight" aspect. There was a lot of, "wow a company sold for $16b just by making a phone app?!" By contrast people aren't surprised that classic capital-intensive, "heavyweight" infrastructure companies like telcos can be worth billions. Plus, nobody cares about infrastructure unless it's their own infrastructure. DONG Energy recently sold a minority stake to Goldman Sachs for $2 billion, which made huge news in Denmark, but did anyone else read about it?
- omegant 13y ago
  The problem is that isn't making the news even in Spain..
  - gmazzotti 13y ago
    When Tuenti (the Facebook of Spain) was sold it was very very covered in the press (in Spain and in all Europe) although it was “only” a 70MM adquisition, is not how big is the sucesss or how much money is done, is how boring or how popular the startup is what makes how much cover the news get.

tete 13y ago

I do not say that you are not right, but I have another possible explanation, which is that US companies might be louder and/or do better marketing. Also yes, Ono is simply less known throughout Europe. Ono as far as I know has now global marketplace, but Whatsapp does.