I'm so tired of this bullshit right wing propaganda. It's been going on for decades, and always uses the same formula:<p>1) Europe (a non-existent as a nation, even purely geographically it's blurry) is in crisis/dying/crumbling. Optional addition: because socialism.<p>2) The solution is to be like the glorious USA.
> By many measures, the UK is ahead of the others in terms of its digital foundations and sophistication; for example, the proportion of retail in the U.K. penetrated by B2C e-commerce is nearly twice the European average and higher than even in the U.S.<p>UK has been doing well compared to others mainly because it's a fully English speaking country and the US already has a history with UK (sort of speak).<p>It's <i>natural</i> for US companies to establish headquarters in "Europe" in UK first, before any other country. Personally, I do hope US companies consider countries where leadership doesn't favor so strongly mass surveillance and censorship, but either way it has little to do with policies and laws. The language barrier is a huge problem for an "EU single market". As the young generations grow-up with the English-speaking Internet, it will be less of a problem, but right now the language barrier is very much real.
There are quite a few hurdles for small businesses and young startups in Europe to do business online:<p>* registration of a limited company is not that simple in some countries. UK is relatively easy, but in Germany you need to invest at least 25,000 EUR just to get started. Half of it upfront. Not to mention notary fees and other red tape.<p>* VAT is a huge pain since 2015, especially for digital goods and services. Look up VAT MOSS aka #vatmess<p>* language - if you want to cater to a wider audience, localization is still a major aspect and costs a lot in terms of development, content, support etc<p>* employment rules are usually much more strict. This is generally positive for employed individuals, but when it comes to a small business trying to work with freelancers (or freelancers themselves), they are massive hurdles. I'm familiar with IR35 in the UK, but there's pretty much the same thing here in Germany without having a fancy name... I'm pretty sure similar rules apply in other EU countries as well, but have no actual knowledge about other countries.<p>Source: being a small fish entrepreneur in Israel, UK and Germany.<p>EDIT I should also add currency support. Whilst the EUR covers a fair number of countries, there are still exceptions...
We incorporated our startup in the Netherlands because that's where one of the founders lived. It took a couple of months of sending various documents back and forth and required 18K EUR in cash (recoverable) as well as some non-trivial expenses for various fees. Fast forward a few years, we sold our app and liquidated the company. The amount we received in cash <i>before income tax</i> is less than half of what was paid to us. I feel like I was working for the Dutch government this whole time. Obviously not happening again.
Not about article itself, but design of the website made me consider if it's worth reading.<p>Fixed header and footer takes 25% of my screen's space and distracts greatly. If my screen would be somewhat smaller (e.g. 11-12'), first graph would barely fit in between header and footer.
4 websites deeper I finally found at least an outline of what are they actually measuring:<p>"Our data and insights are calculated and measured utilizing four drivers.<p>Digital Economy Driver - Demand
Demand: covers consumer income and demographics as well as internet usage.<p>Digital Economy Driver - Supply
Supply: focuses on technology and infrastructure and whether or not they can support digital commerce and transactions.<p>Digital Economy Driver - Institutions
Institutions: accounts for government policy and access to trade.<p>Digital Economy Driver - Innovation
Innovation: rates the environment for creating startups and the overall competitive landscape."
Yet the UK PM is keen on making things much tougher for digital startups - <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/immigration-cuts-will-hurt-uk-tech-sector-2015-10" rel="nofollow">http://uk.businessinsider.com/immigration-cuts-will-hurt-uk-...</a>
The index's criteria...<p><i>...high levels of digital development are attractive to global businesses and investors and that their digital ecosystems are positioned to nurture start ups and internet businesses that can compete globally</i><p>...is so nebulous and silly how could anyone take this seriously?
The graph on HBR is a bit weird. Czech and Slovakia are just next to each other geographically (used to be same country), Czech are pretty far in terms of getting things done digitally and yet they are classed as rapidly receding, Slovakia is in the "slowly advancing" category.
I'm sure there are minute differences between those countries but as vast as the graph portrays...