Why Europe isn't creating any Googles or Facebooks

focused on building up their user numbers. Only once they were established as global forces did they put more attention to making money, through advertising

Building a better Billboard vs. a better Mouse Trap is a compelling contrast in this AP article.

Funny how so many Americans who want to be proud of building the best products in the world are finding investment capital is instead building the best trapdoors while at the same time blaming workers for their self interest in stability and security for family and retirement.

Europe’s many high-technology companies are focused on manufactured goods that can be sold right away to generate revenue — industrial equipment, energy turbines, high-speed trains, medical devices, and nuclear energy.

Old Europe, they sure have some funny ideas about society and investment. Maybe that's the difference between Social Conscience and Hero Worship?

One difference is that the average person in Europe doesn't spend their time watching 'wealth porn' channels like CNBC and Bloomberg that just talk about money, becoming a millionaire, tech companies and the stock market.

America has an advatage because there's an almost unlimited number of wannabe millionaires and suckers in the US that are willing to pay 80x earnings (ie Facebook) to fund these companies. Venture capital in the US is more willing to put up initial funding for these risky start-ups is because all they need to do is hype the company and issue an IPO.

I'd much rather pay 9x earnings for BMW or 14x for Airbus even if it's not as glamorous, but of course this makes it though for startups to compete for a share of the funding.

There are cultural differences in every part of the world. This just happens to be one.

Call it crazy, call it wasteful, it is definitely something many of my software nerd peers are into. We've brainstormed ideas for programs and HW that would get google's attention so our little company might be bought out. "Google-money" was the goal.

Decided that building something useful for our users was a better idea. That is what we are working on today. Don't think google will ever be interested, but people with high incomes and a technical slant will - definitely.

One difference is that the average person in Europe doesn't spend their time watching 'wealth porn' - comments

Loved the line: "champagne wishes and caviar dreams." - Robin Leach. And, now, Americans have Rump Leech. 'And they go round and round and round in the circle game.'

In the States there is a large volume of potential customers with similar needs/interests in an app. Also, most of the target customers for phone apps speak either English or Spanish, although mostly English.

In Europe, there is just more involved in making an app successful or appealing to a similar number of customers. Costs for translations (people prefer local languages, after all) and differences in interests (TV shows, culture, etc) are much wider.

On the other hand, games/apps which require little or no translation (such as Minecraft or the above mentioned Angry Birds) have become huge international hits. There aren't many of them, but Europe is definitely producing some fine products.

I’m not trying to stir an immigration issue hornet’s nest, but left out of the story is the positive effects South Asian and other non-US born groups have had on companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, among dozens of others, as well as on leading IT universities like Stanford, MIT and Carnegie-Mellon, among many others.

Many states in India have focused attention on educating students in IT related studies; now many of the world’s IT experts are coming from there.

Maybe Japan can learn from India. The new Minister of Education should consider taking a trip to Bangalore.

Then again, most of Europe doesn't have a military-industrial complex or a government with sophisticated intent to snoop and spy on either its own or other countries' citizens. It might sound a tad conspiratorial but I too wondered where all these companies came from but suddenly there they were in the vanguard of snooping and spying. I don't trust them any more than the US government.

And let's not forget that 90% of the profits of these American companies like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon are actually earned in Europe, specifically in Luxembourg and Ireland... at least if you believe their tax returns.

I'd like to add one cultural item to the list, which from my point of view has a big impact: it's the way how society deals with failure. When you start your own company and it fails (which is not rare), in most parts of Europe or Japan you would have a really hard time to find employment again or the capital to start yet another company. Your career is burnt. In contrast, in the US, both companies and venture funds appreciate your experience. Your start-up may have failed, but you still learned a lot of valuable things. It just depends on yourself to get on your feet again.

@gonemad

If that's the case, why are all of the Democrats from California attacking Trump for 4 of his companies going bankrupt over the course of his career? Surely he gained helpful experience from those?

@Illyas, politics is a completely different matter than business and the fact that somebody is attacked from his political foes doesn't mean much if anything. Apart from that, I'm not familiar enough with the details of Trump's career so that I don't want to comment on this particular case. At least he's still successful with his other companies.