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If Germany couldn't have produced Facebook it's only because of the language. User content on facebook is mainly a written language thing, and it would have bee

by flexie 12y ago

If Germany couldn't have produced Facebook it's only because of the language. User content on facebook is mainly a written language thing, and it would have been hard spreading a website with mostly German content to English since so few Americans and brits speak German. On the other hand, most young Europeans speak English so Facebook had little trouble spreading from American universities to Europeans. Skype started in Europe (Swedish/Danish co-founders, Estonian devs, offices in London, company in Luxembourg). No "committe/government/consensus" there. Also, Apple and Google are examples of American companies that started with public funding. Finally, many European countries rank higher than the US when it comes to social mobility. Don't most European know several millionaires who "came out of nothing" (or at least from a quiet European middle class background)? I think so.

raverbashing 12y ago
> If Germany couldn't have produced Facebook it's only because of the language No. Most Germans don't even care for FB (or twitter). Or they use it with a limited purpose. They think it's silly. Skype is a nice example, but is one of fewer companies like that. > Apple and Google are examples of American companies that started with public funding Are you sure? A lot of SV companies have had public funding but I'm not sure about them. "Don't most European know several millionaires who "came out of nothing"" Well, this happens pretty much everywhere, even in 3rd world countries (sure, in a much smaller quantity). Social mobility is important, but a comfortable life in a comfy job may also be a prison (better than going through difficulties, sure)
- Quanttek 12y ago
  > No. Most Germans don't even care for FB (or twitter). Or they use it with a limited purpose. They think it's silly. Not really, atleast from my experiences. Almost the complete youth & young adults atleast use Facebook and a considerable amount Twitter (more Twitter user, the older they get). Older adults and eldery only use FB/Twitter partially (I'd say 20%) and realtively inactive Though, yes, in Germany - on average - Facebook & Twitter are less used, mostly because of privacy reasons
  - thejdude 12y ago
    IME very many German people are on FB (but yes, many also aren't, because they don't care and have their circle of offline friends). Twitter, almost nobody. Among younger (20-30) Germans, I think almost everybody is on FB (and even more are on What's App).
    - raverbashing 12y ago
      Being on FB (usually with a false name) does not mean that they would have created it as it is
      - thejdude 12y ago
        I never said they would. But for a while Germany had StudiVZ and MeinVZ. After a while FB became more popular, people with some international friends joined at first, and after a while everyone else did and the other networks basically starved. It was sad to watch, especially since many (local) groups there and parts of the UI were IMHO much nicer than what's on FB today.
ctdonath 12y ago
Apple didn't start with public funding. It was a hobby for a couple guys who sold their homemade computers at a club. Don't confuse the fact that, during startup, a business used available public funding as just another available opportunity to leverage, vs a business that never would have started/survived without public funding.
- flexie 12y ago
  Yes they did receive government funding from early on. Apple received early stage funding from the SBIC programme: http://www.sbia.org/?page=sbic_program_history http://www.sbia.org/?page=sbic_program_history And, more importantly, many of the technologies used by Apple right from the first computers to the iphones were developed with government funding and used free of charge: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/10/24/t-iphone-government-funding-technology-research-apple-google.cnnmoney/ http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/10/24/t-iphone-go... And I am not even talking about the later government subsidies from American states and from Ireland in the form of massive tax breaks. Nokia didn't get away with paying a 2 percent tax on its European profits (but probably received other government funding themselves along the way). Similarly, the Google founders' work on the pagerank algorithms on Stanford was funded by a government entity, the National Science Foundation, and they were allowed to use it commercially free of charge. And Google too, has received massive tax breaks.
  - ctdonath 12y ago
    Again: don't confuse use of available options including gov't funding, with likely failure if gov't funding wasn't available. The Steves were highly motivated; lack of government funding likely would not have stopped Apple from existing much as we know it now. Just because a party was involved doesn't make 'em indispensable.
OGC 12y ago
Actual German here. There actually was a Facebook clone (among others, with millions of users) very much in widespread use here before Facebook officially started here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StudiVZ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StudiVZ
petercooper 12y ago
The English speak English, and I can't think of any serious socially-oriented sites that are popular across the English speaking world that were born in the UK except for last.fm which was mostly a music tracking service than a social area. I'd be interested if anyone can bring any up though, but I'm kinda surprised nothing like a British version of Reddit ever took the Internet by storm.. everyone I know here just uses all the American sites.

by flexie 12y ago

raverbashing 12y ago

> If Germany couldn't have produced Facebook it's only because of the language No. Most Germans don't even care for FB (or twitter). Or they use it with a limited purpose. They think it's silly. Skype is a nice example, but is one of fewer companies like that. > Apple and Google are examples of American companies that started with public funding Are you sure? A lot of SV companies have had public funding but I'm not sure about them. "Don't most European know several millionaires who "came out of nothing"" Well, this happens pretty much everywhere, even in 3rd world countries (sure, in a much smaller quantity). Social mobility is important, but a comfortable life in a comfy job may also be a prison (better than going through difficulties, sure)

Quanttek 12y ago
> No. Most Germans don't even care for FB (or twitter). Or they use it with a limited purpose. They think it's silly. Not really, atleast from my experiences. Almost the complete youth & young adults atleast use Facebook and a considerable amount Twitter (more Twitter user, the older they get). Older adults and eldery only use FB/Twitter partially (I'd say 20%) and realtively inactive Though, yes, in Germany - on average - Facebook & Twitter are less used, mostly because of privacy reasons
- thejdude 12y ago
  IME very many German people are on FB (but yes, many also aren't, because they don't care and have their circle of offline friends). Twitter, almost nobody. Among younger (20-30) Germans, I think almost everybody is on FB (and even more are on What's App).
  - raverbashing 12y ago
    Being on FB (usually with a false name) does not mean that they would have created it as it is
    - thejdude 12y ago
      I never said they would. But for a while Germany had StudiVZ and MeinVZ. After a while FB became more popular, people with some international friends joined at first, and after a while everyone else did and the other networks basically starved. It was sad to watch, especially since many (local) groups there and parts of the UI were IMHO much nicer than what's on FB today.

ctdonath 12y ago

Apple didn't start with public funding. It was a hobby for a couple guys who sold their homemade computers at a club. Don't confuse the fact that, during startup, a business used available public funding as just another available opportunity to leverage, vs a business that never would have started/survived without public funding.

flexie 12y ago
Yes they did receive government funding from early on. Apple received early stage funding from the SBIC programme: http://www.sbia.org/?page=sbic_program_history http://www.sbia.org/?page=sbic_program_history And, more importantly, many of the technologies used by Apple right from the first computers to the iphones were developed with government funding and used free of charge: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/10/24/t-iphone-government-funding-technology-research-apple-google.cnnmoney/ http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/10/24/t-iphone-go... And I am not even talking about the later government subsidies from American states and from Ireland in the form of massive tax breaks. Nokia didn't get away with paying a 2 percent tax on its European profits (but probably received other government funding themselves along the way). Similarly, the Google founders' work on the pagerank algorithms on Stanford was funded by a government entity, the National Science Foundation, and they were allowed to use it commercially free of charge. And Google too, has received massive tax breaks.
- ctdonath 12y ago
  Again: don't confuse use of available options including gov't funding, with likely failure if gov't funding wasn't available. The Steves were highly motivated; lack of government funding likely would not have stopped Apple from existing much as we know it now. Just because a party was involved doesn't make 'em indispensable.

OGC 12y ago

Actual German here. There actually was a Facebook clone (among others, with millions of users) very much in widespread use here before Facebook officially started here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StudiVZ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StudiVZ

petercooper 12y ago

The English speak English, and I can't think of any serious socially-oriented sites that are popular across the English speaking world that were born in the UK except for last.fm which was mostly a music tracking service than a social area. I'd be interested if anyone can bring any up though, but I'm kinda surprised nothing like a British version of Reddit ever took the Internet by storm.. everyone I know here just uses all the American sites.