[icc97]

Its certainly an advantage the European startups don't seem to take up on. For example Duolingo is headquartered in the US.

[DoofusOfDeath]

I would guess that the main reason Duolingo is based in the U.S. is that it originated at a U.S. university (Carnegie Mellon).

[icc97]

Duolingo is purely an example - but you could ask why the research occurred in an American University rather than an EU one. Google Translate is another.

In theory there should be many more people willing to pay to learn another language / translate in Europe. Yet the US is far ahead.