Submitted by nabeth.thierry on Fri, 2012-05-18 18:19

Building the Next Facebook a Tough Task in Europe
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/technology/18iht-net18.html

Extract:
In the United States, promising Internet start-ups can expect venture capitalists to come calling at an early stage. Fat checks often follow quickly. In Europe, many entrepreneurs have to wait longer; to get their businesses up and running, they sometimes have to rely on unorthodox sources of funding, including France’s generous welfare benefits.

Group audience:

Innovation and entrepreneurs

Comments

Not to underestimate the

Submitted by tbikeev on Sat, 2012-05-19 07:35

Not to underestimate the importance of the VCs, but the bootstrapping is equally important (at which Europe possibly excels) .

"No revolution ever started on a full stomach."

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/05/bootstrapping.html#comment-530117435

Another article focusing on

Submitted by nabeth.thierry on Mon, 2012-05-21 11:29

Another article focusing on the case of France. (sorry, in french only).

La chaine de financement de l’innovation n’est pas prête à générer un Facebook français …
Jean-David Chamboredon - publié le 21.05.2012
http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/expert/51587/la-chaine-de-financem...

Extrait: En ce jour important qui voit Facebook entrer en bourse avec une capitalisation boursière supérieure à $100bn, les questions de journalistes et les « tweets » pullulent sur le thème « à quand un Facebook français ? ».
La réponse courte est simple : « Cela n’est pas pour bientôt et peut-être cela ne sera jamais si nous ne construisons pas patiemment et continument un écosystème et une chaîne de financement pérenne le permettant ».

The author, (a former VC) is calling for the creation of an ecosystem, and a chain of financing it.

Very interesting..is EU

Submitted by lpujol on Tue, 2012-05-22 17:27

Very interesting..is EU problem to start or grow a business? see previous discussions http://daa.ec.europa.eu/comment/342#comment-342.
It seems that it's very difficult to have big players in the web in EU. Thierry, Tbikeey, others..which are the bottlenecks for growing? Is it EU fragmentation or also a matter of "thinking big" and targeting international market from the beginning? which actions could be done to unlock this?

VC as a financing model is

Submitted by rebentisch on Wed, 2012-05-23 14:10

VC as a financing model is not common in continental Europe, just as driving on the left side. So we have to wonder how to achieve the same effect in our regulatory system and financial traditions.

From a very low base, Ireland

Submitted by fergal on Wed, 2012-05-23 19:39

From a very low base, Ireland has seen strong development in levels of VC investment. Now the proportion of VC investment, to overall capital investment in the economy, (while it could be developed further) is quite good when compared to levels in the US. We have analysed the data, there is still a significant lower level for the earlier funding rounds.

There is a need for us in Europe to really change our attitude to risk and reward if we are to capture the economic growth being driven by young entrepreneurs.

In the last 5 years, the

Submitted by Carsten Kestermann on Thu, 2012-05-24 11:35

In the last 5 years, the American software industry recieved 14 bn € more VC than the European...that is a significant fact...in 2010 it was 312 million € in EU-27 vs. 2.1 billion € in the USA... we need to improve that... Israel is the role model...

Carsten, I am interested in

Submitted by fergal on Thu, 2012-05-24 16:22

Carsten, I am interested in your source of data. 312 in all of EU seems small.

Now I know this is for all sectors, but the OECD reports that Ireland had €479m VC (seed, venture and growth) in 2010.

Irish VC numbers are of the best in EU27 so while I would agree that Israel is the role model in lots of ways the EU is not underperforming by an order of magnitude in terms of investment.

Perhaps it is underperforming by that order in terms of IPOs however.

The numbers are for 2010, for

Submitted by Carsten Kestermann on Tue, 2012-05-29 10:30

The numbers are for 2010, for software-industry only, based on the numbers from the German Private Equity and Venture Capital Association http://www.bvkap.de/privateequity.php/cat/2/title/Home , calculated by ourselves

Furthermore beter not quote

Submitted by rebentisch on Fri, 2012-05-25 12:24

Furthermore better not propagate an article which talks down on France in an unreflected manner that does not seem appropriate among educated persons.

I do not necessarily endorse

Submitted by nabeth.thierry on Fri, 2012-05-25 15:53

I do not necessarily endorse the ideas that are present in the articles that I post as reference. I post them because they are relatively argumented, and relevant, and can bring useful discussions and idea (which has been the case here).

We are educated people here, and therefore a capable of critical thinking and not accept as true everything that is written. Journalists (even in the NYT) are often pushing some level sensationalism in order to grab people attention.

Note:
And I am definitively not a full proponent of venture capitalist, and a believer that governmental action is evil.
I tend to agree with you that Europe may have different tradition for financing, an that we have to explore the different possibilities.

which is totally true, but

Submitted by Carsten Kestermann on Tue, 2012-05-29 10:31

which is totally true, but looking at Basel II and III, at least financing from banking is not an option...

Article about french start

Submitted by nabeth.thierry on Mon, 2012-06-04 11:44

Article about french start-ups.
The barriers are cultural. Many look first at the french (or the european market), and than expect to be baught by a US company

In french again sorry.
Pourquoi les start-up françaises s'exportent mal
(Why the French start-ups are exported poorly)
http://www.lesechos.fr/entreprises-secteurs/enquete/0202085094877-pourqu...

French SMEs to display an Internet audience and revenues far behind the leading international groups. Too concentrated on the European market or six, they invest gradually emerging but struggling to access the American Eldorado.

Note:
Les Echos is the biggest french economic newspaper. It is also very serious.

Also and again, my intention is just to convey information so as to feed the debate.

Ironfire Capital founder Eric

Submitted by BogdanFlorin on Wed, 2012-06-06 12:37

Ironfire Capital founder Eric Jackson is predicting that Facebook will see its demise by year 2020 as a result of the “continued emergence of the mobile web and Facebook’s struggle to adapt to that paradigm shift”. The argument is that Facebook is, in all reality, just a website and not a mobile app. The company also sees its ad-free mobile use of Facebook as a risk factor and will become more problematic for the success of the organization. Jackson views a new third generation of companies, whose sole goal is to leverage and monetize mobile users, as the subjugator of Facebook. He also predicts that Facebook will face the same challenges evolving in the mobile space that Google has had entering the social world.

So, what will this new third generation of mobile victors look like? And, how will other forms of technology, like the Kindle, adapt to these new social tools so they stay relevant to customer needs? And, the big question is, will Facebook ever die?
Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47674474