Is Europe's Silicon Valley a better choice than America's Silicon Valley? (apartment, renters)

[Winterfall8324]

Originally Posted by drro

Cambridge and Eindhoven have a concentration of tech companies so those could be considered our 'Silicon Valley'. Berlin has somewhat of a startup culture too.

I don't think being an exact copy of Silicon Valley would be desirable. Silicon Valley is mostly about hype, speculation, and getting rich quickly by obtaining venture capital these days. The real innovation is long gone there. All the speculation and venture capital have made it a very expensive place to live, costs of living are 3 - 5 times as expensive as tech cities in Europe.

that is a fair point. A lot of new start-ups with a lot of real potential base themselves else where like Boston, D.C, Denver, or even Austin in the US. that being said Silicon valley still does a lot of research and world changing work from the companies already established there (Google, intel, Oracle, etc.)

[lukas1973]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

Unlikely, as housing burden (% of income paid to housing costs) isn't lower in Germany as compared to the U.S.

It may or may not be that Germans like to travel more than other nations, but it doesn't appear that relative housing burden plays a role.

The composition of the consumer price index is a good way to look how much (as a percentage of all expenditures) people spend for certain categories.

Goods and services where Americans spend a higher percentage:

U.S. / Germany

Housing, fuels, utilities: 37.234% / 31.922%

Transportation: 15.259% / 14.104%

Medical care: 8.375% / 5.487%

Food and beverages away from home: 6,151% / 3.423%

Communication: 3.956% / 3.010%

Education: 3.189% / 2.015%



Goods and services where Germans spend a higher percentage:

U.S. / Germany

Recreation: 5.734% / 11.492%

Food an non alcoholic beverages at home: 8.230% / 10.271%

Apparel and shoes: 3.101% / 5.064%

Household furnishing and operations: 4.160% / 4.978%

Tobacco, alcoholic beverages: 1.247% / 3.759%

Personal care: 1.519% / 2.254%

Other services: 1.003% / 1.177%

Lodging: 0.841% / 1.044%



One of the main differences is, that Americans spend a higher percentage on housing and medical care. Whereas Germans spend a higher percentage for recreation.
Americans spend more for food away from home, whereas Germans spend more for food at home.

Source:

http://www.bls.gov/cpi/usri_2015.txt

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Publikati...ublicationFile

[Winterfall8324]

London would be a better choice for SV of Europe

Extremely false with what the original poster is claiming. There is already high variety of equivalent Silicon Valleys technological Gold Mines all over Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...nology_centers! Berlin's version is not any more superior, or dominant. Equal Collective Power is a natural occurrence around the Netherlands (Science Park Amsterdam, Technopolis Innovation Park Delft, Kennispark Twente - Enschede, Utrecht Science Park - Utrecht, Avantis European Science and Business Silicon Park - Heerlen, Leiden Bio Science Park - Leiden, Zernike Science Park - Groningen, High Tech Campus Eindhoven - Eindhoven), France (Saclay-Paris, GIANT- Grenoble, Inovallee - Meylan, Metz Science Par Technopole- Metz, Toulouse Sud-Est : Agrobiopole, Labège-Innopole, Aerospace Valley - Midi-Pyrenees Toulouse, Sophia Antipolis - Valbonne French Mediterranean close to Nice area, Villeneuve-d'Ascq Technopôle: Nord-Pas-De-Calais Lille area), UK (Silicon Roundabout- London, Oxford Science Park- Oxford, M4 Corridor Silicon Corridor - Reading Berkshire, Silicon Fen- Cambridge, Silicon Glen - Central Scotland, Silicon Gorge -Bristol, Croydon Tech City - Croydon), Sweden (Kista- Stockholm), Spain (Andalusia Technology Park - Málaga, Aeropolis Parque Tecnológico Aeroespacial de Andalucía - Seville, AZTI-Tecnalia Parque Tecnológico de Bizkaia - Derio, Cartuja 93 - Seville), Austria (Softwarepark - Hagenberg Upper Austria, VRVis Research Center- Vienna), Czech Republic (South Moravian Innovation Centre - Brno), Ireland (Silicon Docks- Dublin), Italy (FabriQ- Milan), Finland (Otaniemi - near Helsinki), Portugal (Taguspark -Lisbon area, Instituto Pedro Nunes - Coimbra), Romania (Romania's technopolis - Cluj Napoca), Russia (Skolkovo Innovation Center - Moscow, High Technology Park 'IT Park'- Kazan), Belarus (Belarus High Technologies Park - Minsk), and the others ones of Germany (Isar Valley - Munich, Information Technology IT Lagoon - BioCon Valley - Western Pomerania Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rhein-Main-Neckar IT cluster TechnologieRegion - Karlsruhe, Silicon Woods- Kaiserslautern, Silicon Saxony -Dresden)! They are all signifiant, and other vast, and massive Silicon Valleys of Europe.

Even within the country of Germany, there is at least 5 Silicon Valleys all over the nation. This article illustrates Munich is the real top German Silicon Valley tech hub, not Berlin: https://squareglasses.wordpress.com/...ilicon-valley/


Why are naive people ignoring reality with false delusion of Germany having this clear dominance over economics? Not the situation when observing demographics of the entire Continent more closely. Heavy scrutinizing of real facts, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, and maybe Netherlands, France, UK, Sweden have a solid equal ground or occasionally even more economic power than Germany. Including other countries into the Continent mix.

Tons of corresponding Silicon Valleys exist at this point of the modern Global Digital Information Age all over Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Each having identical high value.

[Fabio SBA]

There is only one Silicon Valley, and it's located in California.
Every major country has its hub of technological development, and even the Silicon Valley, though the most influent, is not the only hub even in USA.

In Europe, I notice that there is nothing comparable to the Silicon Valley, the high tech companies are scattered throughout the countries, but large cities such as Berlin, Paris and London would be obvious choices for building startups.

[Brave New World]

Originally Posted by Fabio SBA

There is only one Silicon Valley, and it's located in California.
Every major country has its hub of technological development, and even the Silicon Valley, though the most influent, is not the only hub even in USA.

In Europe, I notice that there is nothing comparable to the Silicon Valley, the high tech companies are scattered throughout the countries, but large cities such as Berlin, Paris and London would be obvious choices for building startups.

Your local European tech hub probably won't be The Next Silicon Valley

European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - New Commission study identifies Europe's top ICT hubs

According to the EU there is a hugh innovation cluster forming in the region circling around London/Cambridge, Paris, Amsterdam and Munich with Brussels, Leuven, Eindhoven, Darmstadt and Luxemburg in its core. What’s more, most of these hubs are connected to each other by high speed rail. Berlin, Helsinki, Dublin and Barcelona also notable tech hubs.

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by Fabio SBA

There is only one Silicon Valley, and it's located in California.
Every major country has its hub of technological development, and even the Silicon Valley, though the most influent, is not the only hub even in USA.

In Europe, I notice that there is nothing comparable to the Silicon Valley, the high tech companies are scattered throughout the countries, but large cities such as Berlin, Paris and London would be obvious choices for building startups.

What about Tokyo? Wouldn't that be considered the other Silicon Valley?

[Fabio SBA]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

What about Tokyo? Wouldn't that be considered the other Silicon Valley?

Tokyo can be considered the Silicon Valley of Asia, as it can also be considered the New York of Asia due to its skyscrapers and financial centre; the London of Asia because it hosts a monarchy and drives on the left lane, the Paris of Asia due to its fashion scene and cultural hub, the São Paulo of Asia due to, well... its huge amount of people with japanese ancestry... it depends on which aspect you want to compare.

Anyway, I don't like such comparisons. If we want to name each place as "the answer of the city X in the region Y", we are in fact stating that the city has no self identity.

[NapaCab]

Having lived in both places and worked in tech, Berlin is no Silicon Valley. It is 'poor but sexy' or was when I lived there 10+ years ago anyway. Yes, rents are cheap but jobs are thin on the ground. As mentioned above, most of the big engineering firms in Germany are in the South, around Munich or Stuttgart. Berlin has some media firms, creative industries, some tech / software but not a lot of industry considering it is the same size as Chicago by population. The economic legacy of the Wall is still there.

Berlin is a great city to live in if you have a good job. So much culture and nightlife and relatively low cost of living BUT that good job is hard to come by. Even if you get a job, wages are often lower than other parts of Germany.

The homeownership thing is down to conservative lending by German banks (although said banks have no problem engaging in dubious lending practices for profit outside of Germany so they are not saints) and because tenancy laws are very favorable so you can rent cheaply and securely. It is hard to get a mortgage and most Germans have to save big downpayments. No '3% down' mortgages here. There is a similar issue with credit card debt. It is hard to get a credit card and once you have one, the bank can sequester payment from your account without your permission if you are late to pay. In general, credit in Germany is hard to get. Another reason why Berlin is not like Silicon Valley because it is extremely hard to get a business loan there and often entrepreneurs are personally liable for any money they borrow. If their business goes bust, they are personally ruined. Bankruptcy laws in Germany are old school.

So, yes, Berlin has many advantages but Silicon Valley it ain't. I much prefer living here. There is a more positive culture, better pay, more diversity and open-minded people.

Why are people intentionally limiting their own available options? In reality, there are much more high variety technological zones of control than what people may believe. Minimum amount at least 50 more literal, figurative, and metaphorical Silicon Valleys all over the Globe. Then after those main centers of activity, even more relevant material to those Computers, Airplanes, and Cars the modern people have. For one original source of observance, all of those silicon integrated circuits making all of our Laptop Computers function are from semiconductor fabrication plants often outside of those international Silicon Valleys. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ication_plants