Blog Post

AEIdeas

Oh, there are none.

In The Washington Post today, Larry Downes highlights a point worth highlighting:

Every year, venture capital analyst Mary Meeker lists the most valuable Internet companies in the world, which last year approached $4 trillion in value, nearly all of it created in the last two decades. The United States continues to dominate the list, with 12 of the 20 leaders. (Note to Gov. Brown: 10 are headquartered in California.) Over-regulated Europe has no companies on the list, and seems unlikely to create any. But every year, more and more Chinese companies appear. Perhaps that’s because Chinese consumers, business leaders, and the government — despite its own anxiety about the Internet — share a common belief that disruptive innovation offers China its best chance for entering new markets. And dominating them.

Indeed, the above chart is from that Mary Meek list that Downes mentions. Really embarrassing for Europe (which of course is the model for the American left and its desire to regulate the US technology sector). And why the disparity? As I have written:

One French tech entrepreneur has described America’s edge this way: “The confluence of a large pool of capital, world-class talent, vibrant support infrastructure, and a risk-loving culture has bred a self-fulfilling cycle of innovation and entrepreneurship. Don’t skip over that bit about culture. A European Commission study found Europeans more skeptical of entrepreneurship than Americans, and possessing a higher level of uncertainty avoidance. The churn of American society — companies starting and dying, workers switching firms — is also key to America’s innovative capacity. In a new analysis, San Francisco Federal Reserve economist John Fernald notes that America’s “economic fluidity and dynamism” helps spread ideas throughout the private sector. It’s why Europe invested a lot in computers in the 1990s but never got a tech boom that boosted productivity, Fernald explains.