Not really, atleast from my experiences. Almost the complete youth & young adults atleast use Facebook and a considerable amount Twitter (more Twitter user, the older they get). Older adults and eldery only use FB/Twitter partially (I'd say 20%) and realtively inactive
Though, yes, in Germany - on average - Facebook & Twitter are less used, mostly because of privacy reasons
Among younger (20-30) Germans, I think almost everybody is on FB (and even more are on What's App).
But for a while Germany had StudiVZ and MeinVZ. After a while FB became more popular, people with some international friends joined at first, and after a while everyone else did and the other networks basically starved. It was sad to watch, especially since many (local) groups there and parts of the UI were IMHO much nicer than what's on FB today.
No. Most Germans don't even care for FB (or twitter). Or they use it with a limited purpose. They think it's silly.
Skype is a nice example, but is one of fewer companies like that.
> Apple and Google are examples of American companies that started with public funding
Are you sure? A lot of SV companies have had public funding but I'm not sure about them.
"Don't most European know several millionaires who "came out of nothing""
Well, this happens pretty much everywhere, even in 3rd world countries (sure, in a much smaller quantity). Social mobility is important, but a comfortable life in a comfy job may also be a prison (better than going through difficulties, sure)