Written on 23rd June 2009
3 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
MySpace is crumbling, or rather restructuring. The company has just sent an email to international staff announcing cuts of 300 staff and the closure of 4 offices in Europe. Offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain will also be coming under “specific review”.
London based international managing director Travis Katz is also leaving the company although there is no (more…)
Written on 27th May 2009
2 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
As many of you may or may not know, tonight is the European Champions League, an event of enormous standing if you’re a football (soccer) fan.
The event is such a spectacle, Google have altered their logo to feature a green version featuring a football stadium.
However, on a more serious note, a survey conducted by Firewall security firm Tufin Technologies revealed 39% of IT Professionals would not take their eyes of the match, no matter what the scale of IT failure. Simply put, they would not be disturbed during the final.
As you can (hopefully) tell, this is all a bit tongue in cheek, the real purpose of the survey was in regard to firewall management. According to PC Pro, the survey revealed that “63% of companies only check the rules governing their firewalls every three months, with 9% not bothering at all. A further 51% freely admitted their firewall rules are “a mess.”"
Additionally, “24% of IT professionals admitted they would happily buy hardware for their company from eBay if it saved them money, despite the inherent security and stability risks.”
Written on 27th May 2009
0 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
IBM has reserved $3 billion to fund ’smart infrastructure’ projects in Europe and Asia that are likely to receive government stimulus support.
The announcement follows the group’s statement at the end of April that it would make up to $2 billion available to finance U.S. stimulus programs. That amount has now been allocated to both US and Canadian projects.
This latest move comes as competing infrastructure developers offer financing to cash scarce customers. IBM now joins their competitors in offering low interest rates, deferred payments and structured credit for projects such as the development of congestion-charge schemes in inner urban areas, or health-information technology, as well as for smaller ventures.
“These stimulus projects and other government projects for more sustainable industries are a huge opportunity for us…We can use financing to make things much more affordable and bring forward the break-even point of the project.” IBM Global Financing’s head of marketing, Nick Gallop, told Reuters.
Europe is like to receive the largest share of the total investment.
ComScore has just announced that facebook is growing, fast, in Europe and is actually the dominant network in most of the world.
The only countries in which Facebook does not hold the #1 or #2 position in the social networking category are Germany, where it ranks fourth, Russia (#7) and Portugal (#3).
Facebook Growth in EuropeFebruary 2009 vs. February 2008
Total Europe, Age 15+ – Home and Work Locations
Source: comScore World Metrix
Facebook.com
Unique Visitors (000)
Feb-08
Feb-09
Percent Change
Rank in Social Networking Category in Feb-09
Europe
24,118
99,776
314%
1
United Kingdom
12,957
22,656
75%
1
France
2,217
13,698
518%
1
Turkey*
N/A
12,377
N/A
1
Italy
382
10,764
2721%
1
Spain
515
5,662
999%
1
Germany
680
3,433
405%
4
Belgium
327
2,308
607%
1
Sweden
1,211
2,298
90%
1
Denmark
533
2,022
279%
1
Switzerland
282
1,690
499%
1
Norway
819
1,479
81%
1
Finland
555
1,341
142%
1
Netherlands
236
1,031
337%
2
Austria
112
663
491%
2
Ireland
203
512
153%
2
Russia
117
478
309%
7
Portugal
72
193
169%
3
*Turkey is a newly reported individual country in comScore World Metrix; year ago data not available
From the press release: “As the popular social networking site has increasingly focused its attention on global expansion and increased penetration across countries and regions, the site has catapulted to the #6 ranked Web property worldwide with 275 million visitors in February, a 175-percent increase versus year ago. One of the global regions that best illustrates Facebook’s growth is Europe, where the site has seen a 314-percent increase to nearly 100 million visitors.”
Robin Wauters, organiser of the Plugg conference, decided not to host this years edition at the same location as last year, instead it is now being held in the Belgacom Surfhouse, here in the heart of Europe. The event kick-off didn’t change, it was Mike Butcher of TechCrunch Uk again getting the conference going in his signature style.
The talks this morning were pretty good, although I had a feeling some of them got up on stage because they had their company-logo printed on all the promotional material.
The most interesting of all was certainly Inmaculada Martinez (stradbrokeadvisors), digital media strategist & Venture Capital Investor. Her presentation was well balanced between little jokes and delivering a clear message. She started off comparing Europe to Silicon Valley (as well as Lisa Sounio of Dopplr ). Europeans being great pioneers but lousy marketeers… but are we? She showed us this great movie made by crowdsourcing Europe led by the initiators wreckamovie. Inmaculada urges Europeans, known for their freedom of speech, to use their cheekiness.
As a VC-investor she wants to give some advice:
1) Starting up with friends is more than ok, but make sure everybody (equally) invests.
2) From the moment the development starts, you got to include a marketing strategy.
3) Don’t let R&D lead your startup. Put your product in the market and start making money, even if it contains imperfections.
The title of this post is a quote from Wittgenstein which kept popping into my head as I was traveling through Europe these past weeks. I visited France on a ski trip, stopped over in Vienna by airplane and then traveled to Budapest by car.
I speak Dutch, some English, a little German and unfortunately only know one word in Hungarian. The conference I’m visiting only had 4 English presentations: my own, Ernst-Jan’s and two more. Unfortunately none of the other presentations used the only Hungarian word I know.
Hungary has a population of about 10 million people. After WW1 the country got split up and Hungary lost 72% of its land (a sensitive subject even now) which means that there are about 14.5 million people who still speak the language.
In Europe we tend to compare ourselves to the US regularly. We are jealous of the great start-up cultures in cities like San Francisco and the entrepreneurial spirit that so many Americans seem to have. But how much difference is there really between these two parts of the world? Lets take a good look at some statistics.
Population
The US has a population of more than 300 million. Compare that to Hungary and you aren’t too well off. Compare it to Europe as a whole and the figures look different. There are more than 700 million Europeans. That is twice as big an audience as the US?! Suddenly I don’t feel so alone anymore.
Language Those 700 million people are divided by language, right? They all speak different languages so it is too difficult to reach them? Well yeah, there are 23 official langauges in the European Union and 65 languages and/or dialects in total. That sure sounds fragmented.
Everybody in the United States at least speaks English, right? Well, almost. English is not the official language of the United States but more than 82% of the population speaks it as their native language.
Lets look at Europe again: 51% of all europeans speak English as a second or first language. That actually means that there are more people who speak English in Europe (357 million) than there are people in the United States, in total!
Money
It isn’t really about the language is it? It must be about the money. The United States is a richer market. But is that really true?
It looks like the GDP of the US was about USD 14,330,000 in 2008 and USD 18,930,000 in Europe (In millions of dollars).Yep, Europe is doing a lot better than the US when it comes to GDP. Maybe GPD growth? Is the US growing faster than we are? I don’t know what the results will be of the current economic crisis but when you look at from 2006 till 2007 the United States GDP grew 4.9% and our GDP grew 16%.
Maybe you say I’m making these numbers up as a biased European? Nope, they are from the CIA World Fact Book. Surely the CIA can be trusted on their own numbers?
The more I think about it the more interesting Europe becomes to me:
- There are more people in Europe
- More people speak English in Europe than there are people in the US
- We have more money in Europe than in the US
- We are growing faster
I have to admit, all these ‘facts’ are based on statistics. And we all know how trustworthy those are. But I do suggest you do your own research and look at what you can find out about the differences between Europe and the United States before you pack your bags and move to San Francisco.
Now all that is left for me to do is convince all the Internet Entrepreneurs in Hungary, and Europe, to actually start speaking English…
Written on 23rd December 2008
8 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
On the 19th November, Europe saw the launch of a highly anticipated site devoted to European culture, Europeana.eu. Unfortunately, Europeana sprung to life with so much excitement that by the end of day one it was left on it’s last legs unable to handle the amount of interest – close to 10 million hits per hour it is reported. Just two days later, the site shut up shop temporarily and announced it would return in December after a much needed hardware review. Today, Europeana.eu relaunched albeit quietly and with much less fanfare.
Europeana.eu is devoted to providing free access to 2 million+ objects from various cultural landmarks from over 27 European countries. From museums and galleries to libraries and private collections, Europeana is striving to to have them all available online for the world to see. (more…)
It’s funny and sad. The tech scene is an industry where people travel the whole world for conferences and meet-ups, so you’d expect most to be global citizens. McLuhan’s global village and all that. Yet right after Europe’s largest web conference, almost everybody who has the guts to speak up is ranting about each other’s countries.
A-listers start a discussion – Michael Arrington criticizes Europe’s work ethic, Loren Feldman “bans” France, Loic Le Meur finds himself defending Europe all the time -, and a large group of followers starts to bash anyone whose not from their country.
In the TechCrunch discussion, it took about twenty comments when Godwin’s law was once again proved. At Loren Feldman’s, some people used vivid and hostile examples to fight prejudice: I’m French and you’re right, I shower only once a week. Right after I bang your wife. Plus, in the heat of the discussion, Loic le Meur and Michael Arrington justbroke up.
Screw all that.
I’m lucky to work for this blog. The Next Web team send me all over the world. Everywhere I came, from London, San Francisco, Geneva, Paris, Krakow, Beijing, San Francisco, Shanghai, and even crazy Kathmandu – I found people to level with. Guys and girls who are working to make their dreams come true.
Maybe they’re taking a two hour lunch – but they might as well skip some sleep to work.
Maybe their English is terrible, but they’re helping out millions of people world-wide who speak the same language.
Maybe they don’t have a passport, but thanks to the web they appear more like global citizens to me than most tech people.
Maurice Lévy is a successful and extremely well-connected French marketing mogul. He’s the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s four leading communications organizations. When Lévy reached the top, he transformed the company into a global powerhouse of top creative advertising and marketing agencies and is today a pioneer in digital and online communications.
Due to some negative experiences, e.g. with Didier Lombard, Chairman and CEO of Orange, I learned to block out middle aged men with a French accent during Le Web ‘08. Yet somehow the interesting words spilled through.
Loic le Meur interviewed him on stage about the same themes as he interviewed others: advice for young entrepreneurs, Europe versus the US, and – of course – the recession.
Don’t rush, build a solid base
Let’s focus on the advice for young lads. Lévy said he’s impressed by young people starting their own operation with very little backup and just the belief that they’re idea is important. The first thing a starting entrepreneur should keep in mind, Lévy noted, is that he should build a solid base. “Don’t rush. Do one thing, do it well, and own it. Then go to the next level.”
Americans are privileged
Lévy: “Be a recognized leader. Don’t try to do many things and go to many countries to soon. Build a solid base first, then move on.” According to him, launching a product in the US market compares to launching a product in all European markets – minus the language and tax problems. Entrepreneurs who are born in the US are thus privileged, hence the fact that most web heavyweights are American.
“We should not be afraid of those giants”, Lévy assured the audience. “It’s great that they’re here, because they build the way for us by creating relationships with advertisers. They make the path easier so we shouldn’t be afraid to work or compete with them.”
Great talent in Europe
The possibilities are more scarce in Europe, but they do exist. When Lévy started with the online activities of Publicis Groupe in France it was a rather small operation. Yet in a few years Publicis Groupe turned it into a billion dollar division. “It wouldn’t have made a huge difference if we had done it in Germany, the UK or Poland. We have great talent in Europe that can develop good software.”
Lévy turned out to be surprisingly web savvy, combined with his incredible resume, I found his twenty minutes on stage really inspiring.
Written on 10th December 2008
4 COMMENTS Patrick de Laive, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of The Next Web Conference. Twitter: @patrick
Today, Amsterdam based Twones launches in private beta. Twones is a new Music service that tracks the music you’re playing on your computer (iTunes, WMP, Winamp) AND on 18 web services (Youtube, Last.fm, Myspace, Muxtape etc.). Disclosure: The Twones guys share offices with us and we have a minor stake in the company
Read also what Techcrunch wrote about Twones.
The service collects the songs and destinations you’re playing and shows your songs and the songs your ‘friends’ are playing in a twitter like interface.
Screenshot of music stream:
Screenshot of Heavy Rotation (most popular songs)
Legal
Twones might have the answer to the legal problems of most online music services. Twones directs the traffic to the source where the song is played in first hand, the service itself does not play or embed songs and just collects and displays the data of which songs are played on which site. Twones could be seen as the Delicious of music, it drives traffic to other sites.
Earlier this year Twones received seed funding from a group of European Live Nation informals, the world’s largest concert and music promoter.
Check the 3 minute intro video: (notice the avatar :) )
Written on 23rd June 2009
3 COMMENTS 
MySpace is crumbling, or rather restructuring. The company has just sent an email to international staff announcing cuts of 300 staff and the closure of 4 offices in Europe. Offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain will also be coming under “specific review”.
As many of you may or may not know, tonight is the European Champions League, an event of enormous standing if you’re a football (soccer) fan.
IBM has reserved $3 billion to fund ’smart infrastructure’ projects in Europe and Asia that are likely to receive government stimulus support.
Written on 15th April 2009
ComScore has 
Written on 12th March 2009
location as 
On the 19th November, Europe saw the launch of a highly anticipated site devoted to European culture, 
Written on 14th December 2008
In the TechCrunch discussion, it took about twenty comments when Godwin’s law was once again proved. At Loren Feldman’s, some people used 
Written on 10th December 2008
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
