Why are there no googles,microsoft's,twitter,facebook etc from UK?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nick Baldwin on July 15, 2009 at 11:35am

Not sure about the UK in particular, but SAP, the third-largest software company on the planet, is based in Germany.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Clark on July 15, 2009 at 4:30pm

People aren't hungry enough. You don't want an IPO. You don't want to change the world - you want to do a few years of hard work and then retire in your 2.0 scene.

Build a company, take the first money on the table and go surf.

In the USA you're always building for the next one, how can I make it bigger/better/faster?

European founders should visit San Francisco / New York more often, you'll be shit scared by the focus and hunger of the founders over there.

The UK had Last.FM. $250M. That isn't even a Skype. That isn't even a quarter of a Skype. Embarrassing. Especially when you look at all the glitter in London/Cambridge etc.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Cooper on July 15, 2009 at 4:30pm

Because the British public is generally less experimental when it comes to technology, so launching something in the UK to be used initially by UK customers is next to pointless when you can just target the bigger, more experimental US market instead.

In the US, it's not uncommon to hear people talking about social media in public, whereas in the UK it's mostly restricted to 20 and 30-something digerati and teenagers. We've always had a "wait and see" approach here that doesn't lend itself to early entrance into tech markets (except, curiously, in the early 1980s with the microcomputer boom).

E-commerce took years to blossom in the UK after it was already semi-popular in the US. I still know plenty of people who don't "trust" the Internet - and I'm not even talking old people. It's an air of traditionalism and fear that makes the UK market a piss-poor one to pioneer new technologies with.

I'm British and British based and have always focused everything I create at the US market. Stuff sells better and people are more receptive and more positive in looking at new things. That's the sort of market that both I and growing companies want.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by James McCutcheon on July 15, 2009 at 4:30pm

In my opinion its to do with the laws of bankruptcy, the UK is a lot firmer on people who go bankrupt so there it affects peoples attitudes and investment into innovation and risk.

Of course the lax laws have the opposite affect in causing events like the GFC

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Clark on July 15, 2009 at 4:41pm

don't forget the UK still clings onto the culture of once a failure always a failure. In the USA its appreciated that startups fail often.

James McCutcheon said:

In my opinion its to do with the laws of bankruptcy, the UK is a lot firmer on people who go bankrupt so there it affects peoples attitudes and investment into innovation and risk.
Of course the lax laws have the opposite affect in causing events like the GFC

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peter Clark on July 15, 2009 at 4:50pm

oh, and the UK does have Autonomy. Always forget about those guys. They're even opposite our office.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by jseliger on July 15, 2009 at 5:27pm

Paul Graham has already detailed this subject in "Why to Move To a Startup Hub" and "Cities and Ambition" among other essays.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Vikram on July 15, 2009 at 5:31pm

Thanks for the Paul Graham link,there is one line which is interesting:
Startups are a very specialized business, as specialized as diamond cutting and that's why startups thrive in startup hubs like Silicon Valley!!!

Can some silicon valley companies shift the base or extend the base in to this country and try to replicate!!!

May be an urge or desire as said by Peter Clark "People are not hungry enough" may be the reason?I seriously wish to see more of Companies from this country

jseliger said:

Paul Graham has already detailed this subject in "Why to Move To a Startup Hub" and "Cities and Ambition" among other essays.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Vikram on July 15, 2009 at 5:37pm

Peter,

Thanks for the reply!!

But building products/software was never was only for one country or segment,facebook is quite popular in America,Europe and now expanding in Asia!!

We can build products/software here in UK ,which can cater to the world!!

Vikram


Peter Cooper said:

Because the British public is generally less experimental when it comes to technology, so launching something in the UK to be used initially by UK customers is next to pointless when you can just target the bigger, more experimental US market instead.
In the US, it's not uncommon to hear people talking about social media in public, whereas in the UK it's mostly restricted to 20 and 30-something digerati and teenagers. We've always had a "wait and see" approach here that doesn't lend itself to early entrance into tech markets (except, curiously, in the early 1980s with the microcomputer boom).
E-commerce took years to blossom in the UK after it was already semi-popular in the US. I still know plenty of people who don't "trust" the Internet - and I'm not even talking old people. It's an air of traditionalism and fear that makes the UK market a piss-poor one to pioneer new technologies with.

I'm British and British based and have always focused everything I create at the US market. Stuff sells better and people are more receptive and more positive in looking at new things. That's the sort of market that both I and growing companies want.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Pete Warden on July 15, 2009 at 6:16pm

I recently blogged my personal take on this. I think it's because of negativity, denial and fear of failure:
http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2009/07/you-cant-fail-i...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cary Millsap on July 15, 2009 at 6:24pm

I think Peter's point is a very important factor.

I perceive there's a significant difference between the way that typical UK and US natives regard risk and, for that matter, conformity. I think it's profoundly cultural. Many UK businesspeople with whom I've worked closely seem to find distasteful the whole idea that risk takers should be allowed to fail catastrophically, or succeed fantastically. My perception is that in the UK, the culture is more unwilling to allow either of these outcomes to occur.

Peter Clark said:

don't forget the UK still clings onto the culture of once a failure always a failure. In the USA its appreciated that startups fail often.

James McCutcheon said:

In my opinion its to do with the laws of bankruptcy, the UK is a lot firmer on people who go bankrupt so there it affects peoples attitudes and investment into innovation and risk.
Of course the lax laws have the opposite affect in causing events like the GFC

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Steve Johnson on July 15, 2009 at 6:39pm

Could it be as simple as population? There are just more people in the U.S. UK = 60M; US=300M. Five times as people = five times as many ideas. The same is true for Canada. Canada = 30M; US=300M = ten times as many ideas.

But wait, that fails. Where are the successes in China and India?

Maybe what is different is the way we raise our children. In the 60s in the US, we raised our kids to GET jobs; in the 90s we encouraged our kids to CREATE jobs. U.S. does well in creative endeavors like movies and music. India and China are great at manufacturing. And I think that software is more like music than it is like manufacturing.

Another interesting question is how many of those companies are not from the U.S. but from California. 33M people in California is roughly the size of Canada. But I suspect that California has more ideas than the rest of the US and Canada and UK. There's something about the air out there.

We can reach for the stars in the US--if we're willing to take the fall. We don't have much in the way of protection from our failures. But as someone said earlier, failure doesn't hold much stigma for the U.S. as it might elsewhere.

▶ Reply to This

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page