There have been quite a few social networks in Europe, some of which were more or less direct copies of Facebook at the time. Their decline started around the time Facebook became popular in there. There have been european streaming services years before Netflix was available there and there still are some, mostly owned by TV corporations. I think a lot of european startups focused to much on their starting country, probably lacking the funding to expand beyond their starting country. Their decline then is usually linked to an american competitor entering the european market, having outgrown their local market and having better funding they tend to provide a more rounded service. The only counterexample I can think of is Spotify as they seem to have never really focused on just one country.

> The only counterexample I can think of is Spotify as they seem to have never really focused on just one country.

Spotify was only available in Sweden for the initial 3 years, and after that they launched in the UK as well. 5 years after the local launch, they expanded into the US.

Berlin’s Zalando is another counter example being now bigger than the US original Zappos.

That was also bought and I’d argue Amazon is the winner and that includes Zappos.

The Collisons don't seem to be breaking any laws, yet they started Stripe in California, not Ireland.

It's complicated but I do feel like, at least comparing Ireland and California, there's a lot of tall-poppy syndrome going on. I told some Irish friends I wanted to build my own house and they thought I was crazy and said it was a terrible idea. I told some Californian friends* and they thought it was awesome and wanted to come help build it.

Learned helplessness is bad enough but we're outright _teaching_ helplessness to young people.

*disclaimer: they live in Oregon now

For real, the feeling that "you can do it" is probably 80% of it

And I'll give it to you that the Irish are one of the least DIY people around Europe.

(though I can totally understand being enthusiastic about building a house in California weather vs. Irish)

> the problem is that all the things US tech companies do to get ahead are illegal in Europe.

FWIW a lot of what US tech companies were doing was actually illegal or at least very dark grey in the US too. Skirting taxi regulations (Uber), hotel regulations (AirBnB) or employment law (all of the "gig economy" startups), everything done under "better ask for forgiveness than for permits"... the problem is twofold:

For one, personal liability of corporate executives has fallen out of favor. Unless you're ordering the outright murder of someone, the "corporate veil" will protect you. That means, as long as you budget in the correct-ish amount of fines, you can do whatever the fuck you want with impunity.

But the main problem is that the political system as a whole isn't very agile to react - it takes years for binding court orders if the opponent has good lawyers, the legislative branch is even slower to react, and both the legislative and the executive branch is often enough either too incompetent or outright bought off. And the "fourth branch" aka media isn't much better either - most media is under the control of big conglomerates or oligarchs.

This is such an absurd view. If they did illegal things they would not be able to operate in EU. While some expectations of what is considered acceptable or not have changed in Europe in meanwhile, it doesn't mean they were illegal in the first place. The second point you make is a true problem, the market is fragmented by too many regulations so the cost of establishing a company to the full EU is much greater than establishing it in US. But this makes a case to harmonize more the market. After all it's supposed to be a single market. but the "Single market" part is enforced only for physical goods and digital services goods are still not considered. It's Much easier for the industry Lobby to find a supporter in the fractured EU than in the US and EU in itself is very protectionist of existing business. That's why it will be almost impossible to fund any disrupting Company in EU

> If they did illegal things they would not be able to operate in EU

The arm of the law might not catch everything, and when it does work, sometimes it works slowly.

Companies like Uber and AirBnb got ahead by skirting the law, and had to change their products in some European countries (like Spain) because lawmakers eventually saw what they were doing. AirBnb are now required to ask for tax ID, and Uber had add artificial delays in order to fit within the law that existed. But when they initially launched, they didn't do these things, it was only after pressure that they changed.

There is very clear distinction on something being illegal and something being not defined by law. AirBnB case, at least from what I know on most of countries, the law did not forbid this type activity and yes leaving your house for a couple of days to someone you know for a small recompense was already in use. It didn't make sense to regulate it by law before because it was rare enough. When AirBnB made it usable for the mases then the regulations started to comeup because in that case it started to become a real business. This does not mean it was Illegal before. it was just undefined. The same for example with the data Privacy laws, GDPR etc. these are regulations that have come up as a response to undefined behavior not as a response to illegal behavior.

It's true that laws around leaving your house for a couple of days and renting out temporary didn't require you to setup a business and have a tax ID at hand. It still required paying taxes though, which many avoided.

But that was not the only use of AirBnb, tons of properties were bought and used only for driving what essentially is a hotel in those properties, without registering with the proper entity and paying the appropriate amount of taxes. This was not legal, and never was, as hotels need to have a license, yet AirBnb allowed those entities to continue running on the website until the courts got involved. If that's not skirting the law, I don't know what is.

Now of course, AirBnb requires its users to specify their tax ID before they can let out their places on AirBnb, as the law (already existing since before AirBnb) requires.

> Europe has isn't that they lack money

"Lack" is a bad word but everything that's not around SV gets less funding. Yes, even in the US

> is that all the things US tech companies do to get ahead are illegal in Europe

So maybe don't do illegal BS and it will work out. In fact I'd say there's a huge market to be explored but enterpreneurs try the same stuff that works in the US without thinking about the market characteristics

> it turns out Netflix were impractical in the EU due to challenges both regulatory and linguistic

Netflix works just fine in Europe.

sounds like the German's auto industry.

maybe instead of focusing why others are successful just go out and do your own thing? at the end Europe is full of unicorns and more startups are coming out of their teams.

The only thing I really see missing in Europe is the lack of dream / vision / going after big goals and having others believe that's possible. but even that gets easier each time you look around and spot a unicorn.

so just go build something