http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Eur... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurozone#Member_states
I think he covered that point pretty well to be honest, you know, in the paragraph that starts off:
You may say, "Well, this is like the US with its different states." I would disagree because, while there is certainly a noticable difference between, say, New York City and a rural Mississippian town...
I agree that for generalized investment purposes you can most likely leave off former USSR states, but the genralisation that UK isn't part of the Europe talk is a little crazy. Either way, you'd be a fool to do any kind of business solely relying on some internet blog post.
332 million is less than half of Europe's population. That's not "most of Europe" by any stretch.
> It's not like someone will go to invest blindly to the _geographic region_ that is Europe. He will most likely go to what is called Western Europe, or the EU.
Even Western Europe has huge differences in buying power (contrast Germany with Spain, e.g.). You mention the EU... The EU includes Eastern European countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, etc.
Point is, facts matter - especially if you're building a business.
But so we're clear, all the points the original article was making was about Europe as a an economic entity, most likely not including the likes of Ruasia and Kazakhstan (which you're obviously not afraid to do to reach that quite ludicrous and irrelevant figure of 750+ million people).
At this rate you might as well include all of Africa and Asia in Europe too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transcontinental_countr...
The population of Europe is 739 million and going by the number of Russians I meet here in Scotland and on holiday in France and the Med they seem to be joining in pretty well with the European cultural milieu...
I suspect people from outside of Europe don't appreciate how much things have changed in the last 25 years - all for the better as far as I can see:
That's like saying the US only consists of New York + D.C. + the Midwest + California.
> all the points the original article was making was about Europe as a an economic entity
Then why didn't he write "the EU" instead of "Europe"? But even if he had, many of his statements would still be wrong. For instance much of what he said didn't apply to Germany (and that's a pretty solid player in the EU).
This, exactly, seems to be the point OP is missing.
Scale
You'd be surprised.
Rural Idaho and New York have very little in common in buying preferences, business opportunities, employment opportunities, cost of living, potential market and such.
And New York and parts of Mississippi or South Dakota have even less. Would you base an startup on Holly Ridge or Indianola?
Heck, there are parts of South Dakota (the Indian reservations) that have a life expectancy of 48 years -- a third world like number.
Someone should do this. Like... actually write this post.
>"Most of Europe has the euro as a common currency" -- Only 17 of Europe's 50 countries use the Euro.
Yes. Only some of the LARGEST countries, for a total of 332 million people. Not to mention that he did say "most".
>"Europe is great for an American tech entrepreneur because wealth is better distributed" The difference between the Scandinavian countries and, say, Russia is enourmous when it comes to wealth distribution.
That's one of the reasons most people don't include Russia when they talk about Europe. Not to mention that it can even refer only to the EU countries.
>"More consumers can buy your products and services" Certainly depends on whether you're selling to Swiss or Romanians.
The same point keeps repeated.
It's as if someone talked about investing in the US, and someone felt obliged to blog about the differences between Illinois and New York and rural Idaho, Mississippi, Alabama and South Dakota.
Yes, we got it already. It's not like someone will go to invest blindly to the _geographic region_ that is Europe. He will most likely go to what is called Western Europe, or the EU.