I'm cross posting and translating here a contribution I made on the French CNNum (National Digital Council) consultation.
Our Industry like almost all industries in Europe, as well as our political system, has tremendous difficulties to "think european". However it is today critical that we do as in the "winner take all" markets in which we navigate, each local market is too small to help a local actor become a world wide leader and each new market that startups try to address is a new cultural challenge.
Although we face all these difficulties, each country in Europe is playing solo thinking that because the digital market is so dynamic, each country will be able to win. In the mean time the US Gorillas laugh, surf and bring the business home (more exactly to the Bahamas through Ireland !).
This is sad, because in the past Europe has been able to work out it's differences in other domains to create Airbus which is a leader in the Aeronautics, which was not an easy challenge.
Of course the "Airbus" model is probably not the right one for the digital market but this should not stop us from "thinking european" in everything we do. This is true for startups creators, established entrepreneurs, public services that help innovation or investors.
We have to create stronger European alliances and push startups to become multi-national companies. Way to many of the initiatives are local. It is almost impossible today to create a company both in France and Germany and benefit from the local programs that help innovation (and it's already hard to understand how it works in one country, imagine doing that in 27 countries and more).
We need to wake up and think european !
