- CEOs of European technology companies told CNBC at the Web Summit technology conference this week that the continent should adopt a “Europe-first” approach to tech, after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory.
- Andy Yen, CEO of VPN maker Proton, said Europe should “step up” and “be aggressive” to counter U.S. Big Tech firms’ tight grip on many important technologies, such as web browsing, cloud computing, smartphones — and now artificial intelligence.
- Thomas Plantenga, CEO of Lithuania-based used clothing app Vinted, urged Europe to take the “right choices” to ensure it doesn’t get “left behind.”
Exactly illustrates where Europe’s tech sector is at. It only has a few tech companies, that were founded in the post dotcom bubble era, that people outside Europe would know. If you’d ask an average American to name a European tech company they probably will name an old German company like Mercedes or if they follow financial news ASML or Nokia or something but nothing that has been founded in the last 20 years. They probably don’t even know that Spotify is from Europe. Europe failed to build titans of industry of the 21st century.