[endisneigh]

The main difference is that the EU has no meaningful competition and so the only thing they really can do is legislate since innovation doesn’t seem like an option for the EU.

I remember when Nokia represented top tier consumer tech. Oh well.

[mrtksn]

EU is not one of the richest places on the planet thanks to the museum tickets, obviously there's lot's of innovation happening.

In fact, EU is taking the lightweight and pro free market approach here. US tried to destroy TikTok instead of regulate it.

[YetAnotherNick]

There are are concerningly few tech companies in europe, at least compared to their GDP. Top European companies are mostly all fashion or oil and gases.

[1]: https://companiesmarketcap.com/tech/largest-tech-companies-b... [2]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/546298/euronext-market-c...

[mrtksn]

Europe definitely missed out on computers but I suspect it's not that easy to judge if missing out on tech and does mostly textiles.

Market cap doesn't mean people are making money or shows the economy it creates. Musk sends funny troll tweet or says something that will result in a fine few month down the road and instantly billions of dollars of market cap is destroyed or created. This doesn't exist in Europe or anywhere else, at least not at that scale. The amount of money in the USA is just on another level.

Secondly, that crazy ecosystem in the US sucks all the high potential companies. It's very common for an EU startup to incorporate in the US to tap into that consumer market and that VC ecosystem. The work is done in NL, FR, RO, BG etc but it is a US company. As a result, you have a situation where the EU part of the operations doesn't make any money because it doesn't have to but does all the salary processing and the Silicon Valley HQ makes ridiculous trades and the EU part looks like a loss center. Lots of lots of games are Europe-made, like European talent created the concept, the graphics, the code but if the publisher is American on the books you'll see it as American success.

Europe has this investment culture where investors invest into stuff that make profit, in US companies don't have to make a profit as long as the owners of the stocks can trade them and make profit.

It's just different, I don't think it's fair to say that Europe does oil and textile and not much more. That wouldn't explain the living standards that are on par with the USA.

[delta_p_delta_x]

> Lots of games are Europe-made ... but if the publisher is American, you'll see it as an American success.

Case in point: Microsoft Flight Simulator (the latest one released in 2020), developed by a French studio, Asobo (the same company also develops the A Plague Tale franchise). Of course, it was augmented by Microsoft technologies like Azure which hosts the cloud and servers for the streaming scenery, but even so, most of the development is European.

[Barrin92]

>There are are concerningly few tech companies in europe

That's because you've redefined technology to mean 'software company'. Oil & gas, automotive, industrial machinery, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, transportation, aviation, construction, telecoms is technology. They're high productivity, high complexity and highly automated sectors. In Ludwigshafen were I grew up there's BASF's chemical complex, literally the largest one in the world. Is that not tech because it doesn't have a smoothie bar and hip people with macbooks in the lobby?

the productivity in wealthy European countries is roughly as high as in the US, and the only way that is possible is due to tech. Otherwise you'd be an agrarian society and much poorer.

[endisneigh]

The EU is rich but it’s not due to excellence in consumer tech. If anything TikTok is a great example since Shorts is catching up (albeit very slowly).

What are the areas in consumer tech where Europe enjoys the worldwide advantage in sales and mindshare?

[sofixa]

> What are the areas in consumer tech where Europe enjoys the worldwide advantage in sales and mindshare

Automobiles, video games off the top of my head. In any case, why does it matter? There are other things outside of consumer tech that are innovative and bring money.

[mrtksn]

There are other things in life and business than consumer tech and consumer tech is not only photo sharing.

[endisneigh]

I never claimed consumer tech is only photo sharing? You’re the one who even brought up Tiktok to begin with, lol.

Sad how it’s so hard to give examples of the EUs excellence in mainstream consumer tech, I guess.

There’s nothing wrong with the EU legislating since they can’t win the market share through traditional means. It’s a valid strategy. Let’s just not pretend, please. The restrictions that will be put in place may be what Europe needs to compete, but let’s just act like Europe is already in a strong competitive position.

[poniko]

Spotify, Minecraft, Klarna and Skype are some from the top of my mind ..

[toyg]

Most UK-EU fintech B2C startups are also better than any US option, afaik.

[mschuster91]

That's not that hard because the foundation of banking here in Europe is so strong. We don't run on physical checks here, we have working next-day inter-bank transfers and direct debits with more and more banks additionally supporting instant transfer, and most importantly we have way less fraud because we have actual identity cards for everyone instead of allowing everyone knowing your SSN to use your data to create fraudulent accounts.

The result is that European fintechs can skip a lot of groundwork that every US fintech has to deal with and we need less of them in the first place because stuff that needs fintechs in the US is available for everyone in the first place.