>Considering the incredible education system and engineers we have, the 2 only things restraining Europe from reaching Silicon Valley level are corrupt politicians and risk-adverse VCs.
I find it telling that it's mostly europeans who make these types of comments. The EU has tremendous barriers to labour mobility that most europeans don't even realise - differing bureaucracy and language being two of the most significant. And i cannot emphasise the bureaucratic hurdles enough when moving countries. Despite the EU crying itself hoarse about labour mobility, only around 5% of EU citizens relocate between EU countries. The majority of that 5% is people moving from poor to richer countries. The comparable number in the US is 20%.
Most rational people realise that despite all its flaws, some of the most key factors in US tech dominance are the existence of a large talent pool, all of whom speak the same language, the existence of a large market all of which operates in the same language and finally VCs willing to take on risk.
Corrupt politicians are not hobbling European tech success any more than corrupt US politicians are hobbling its success. The EU will not reach Silicon Valley's levels of success, at least not in my lifetime.
> differing bureaucracy and language being two of the most significant
It has never been cheaper and easier to operate in several languages. Seriously, translation and internationalization is as cheap as it can get (and most folks in Europe are at least bilinguals!).
What they need to focus on is a unified marketplace and harmonized regulation. Now each tiny country has it's special snowflakes regulations (how to accept payment, who and how to pay taxes, huge amount of paperwork to get employees and ultra-restrictive labor laws). I mean it's good as a job program to keep EU civil servants employed, not so much to bootstrap a tech ecosystem!
I get the feeling you're European. Language is a massive barrier and simply hand-waving that away by claiming that internationalisation is cheap is silly. Language drives a whole host of things and operating in several languages is far from easy. You are also being very generous with claiming that most folks in Europe are bilingual. They may have basic knowledge of multiple languages but can likely function fully in only one. The generations below 30 are likely to be almost completely bilingual. Look at Belgium for example. How many Flemish people can function in French and vice versa?
The fact that the US operates entirely with the global lingua franca is a gigantic advantage that can crush competition before it even begins.
The unified marketplace is one problem but look at what has already been done - EU labour is free to move. Degrees are almost always mutually recognised. What stops further integration? It ultimately boils down to language. This is why a Greek doctor can't just move to Germany. Also why a Spanish lawyer can't easily move to Sweden. Language is a much bigger problem than people here seem to think.
> It ultimately boils down to language. This is why a Greek doctor can't just move to Germany. Also why a Spanish lawyer can't easily move to Sweden. Language is a much bigger problem than people here seem to think.
These are all customer service positions (you get a prefix in front of your name but still).
That matters less with tech. You'll have a localized sales team/customer support sure, and that adds expenses, but it's not a huge burden.
Dealing with a huge amount of paperwork, taxes, special local laws of the N jurisdiction you're operating in, now that's a barrier to entry.
It's actually quite common for Swedes to travel abroad in the EU to study medicine since the entry-requirements to our national medicine programs require very high scores on the high school degrees or aptitude tests (University while free only has limited number of spots assigned out to the best students. If memory serves me right even with a max score on the aptitude test, reserved to some 0.3-0.5% of the test-takers, you will still be put in a lottery pool for the best medschools).
Law degrees might be harder to transfer generally though (easy to transfer in the Nordics at least iirc) but even in the US you need to take the bar in different states, so maybe that part isn't too different anyhow?
Actually, Might become easier in the EU in the future now that post-brexit there isn't any common law countries within the union and with mostly civil law systems it should be easier to unify principles in some sections of the law.
Even if a bunch of Europeans from different countries do talk in perfect english, understanding every word, cultural differences will make true communication hard. The style of work, management and relationships is just too different. And you just can't give everyone 20 cultural awareness courses...
I find it telling that it's mostly europeans who make these types of comments. The EU has tremendous barriers to labour mobility that most europeans don't even realise - differing bureaucracy and language being two of the most significant. And i cannot emphasise the bureaucratic hurdles enough when moving countries. Despite the EU crying itself hoarse about labour mobility, only around 5% of EU citizens relocate between EU countries. The majority of that 5% is people moving from poor to richer countries. The comparable number in the US is 20%.
Most rational people realise that despite all its flaws, some of the most key factors in US tech dominance are the existence of a large talent pool, all of whom speak the same language, the existence of a large market all of which operates in the same language and finally VCs willing to take on risk.
Corrupt politicians are not hobbling European tech success any more than corrupt US politicians are hobbling its success. The EU will not reach Silicon Valley's levels of success, at least not in my lifetime.