There is a juicy post up on Techcrunch you should definitely check out. It is titled “Joie De Vivre: The Europeans Are Out To Lunch” and in it Michael Arrington looks back at Le Web ’08 and shares an observation with us. I quote:
“the joy of life is great, but all these two hour lunches over a bottle or two of great wine and general unwillingness to do whatever it takes to compete and win is the reason why all the big public Internet companies are U.S. based. And those European startups that do manage to break through cultural and tax hurdles and find success are quickly gobbled up by those U.S. companies”
There are 100+ comments from mostly Europeans who feel attacked by the comparison. Read the article but make sure you check out those comments too!
I just knew he would post something like that having watched the closing hours of LeWeb.He knew it would create traffic.
Two words in response – Mobile Internet
Such a generalization is hard to take seriously. He talks as if Europe is one country. Admittedly I’m offended, so I want to find reasons the article is uninformed arrogance.
This is the 2nd time MA has pissed me off like this – the last one was EU treating Microsoft as its ATM.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/28/microsoft-the-eus-atm-machine/
I’m throwing TC out of my RSS reader, for better or for worse.
I can see where the frustration is coming from on both parts.
Having lived near the USA-Mexico border (Tijuana) and worked on for a Big Enterprise in California, I can see where MA point of view comes from. Where the work ethic is a little bit different, but then again it has always been so. USA vs Europe/Rusia/China/India. Those comparisons have always come up. Each and everyone one of them have shortcomings, but that is no reason to get pissed off. I am not defending MA post or point of view, which tends to be hard to swallow.
But lets face it, Europe is a great place for innovation, the problem being that most of the attention has always been on the “valley” or “alley” in the USA. But let´s just get to work, shut up and show them what Europe is capable off.
@Claudio, couldn’t agree more (esp. last part). That’s what I’m going to do, and without being distracted by TC :).
Not going into the topic. Just one comment: How strategically placed is TC’s post, during the weekend :) It will keep the visitors entertained while there are no news
certainly the 2 hours lunch doesn’t apply to the Netherlands :)
@drivingsouth – possibly. the same theory went around about the ATM machine article (‘flamebait’). that’s only useful if the net gain in sustained readers is positive, to put it from its most optimistic business POV. and discounting all goodwill and loyalty defecit to its (e.g.) european readership.
in other words, i see that as a short term pageview grab tactic that is betraying its longterm loyal readership. e.g., me.
Just for the record, I am from Eastern Europe and I am not feeling offended by MA. I subscribed my other feed reader to TC just to level TC subscriber count because of the “ben g” dropping of TC feed.
@stoicho good job :)