I currently run gethly.com - paywalled hosting platform for digital content creators. I spent 2.5 years coding it, 3 years in total, over 10k€ in expenses(mostly administrative stuff like lawyers, accountants, contractors, VAT, EU compliance and other stuff - servers cost me the least). No employees, just contractors as needed, as I can handle most of things due to my, by now, multi-decade experience. This is not my first project but it might be my last.
I have been online since very late 90s and I saw the internet transform through the years. 2000s and 2010s were the best. For users and for businesses. Then big tech came up and it slowly killed everything. Mostly monopolisation, buyouts and exits, userbase saturation, extreme commercialisation of everything, tracking, privacy etc...
Today, as I am looking at the internet as a business owner from the European Union, trying to run an online service business is a DOA idea. Europe lacks everything and USA runs and owns everything. I cannot speak from outside point of view but by sheer luck I just wrote a post on linkedin exactly on this topic so I will merely summarise what I said there - problem in EU are languages, anglification and westward-looking user base. Customers in Europe see everything made at home or not in the western bloc(actually more likely just UK and USA) as not good enough, untrustworthy, unimportant, small and insignificant. If you try to compete digitally in English, you are competing with the whole world that is owned by USA and its endless flow of cheap capital. If you try to compete domestically in non-english language, your users won't take you seriously because you're nobody, you lack international users and recognition and capital backing you up and they do not care about you.
Europe has no infrastructure of its own for online businesses, startups, whatever. There are no or very limited supportive services(cloud, payment processing, cdn, accounting,..) and financing options(venture capital, incubators...). This is why USA is eating Europe's launch.
So the main struggle is not the business itself, it is getting customers. If you have money, you can waste it on advertising but it will be just that - a waste. And you will fill pockets of yet another USA company.
I might sound sour, but this is not just me. I see it everywhere. I am merely summarising the real world experiences here.
I have an idea, that many will find unpleasant, that could make EU competitive and am forming a plan on how to word it properly and get in touch with my EP representative to maybe get some things done in this regard. But I have little faith in the EU being able to turn this around. Especially as Ukraine is still an ongoing issue and the focus is mostly there instead of on domestic issues, like economy, energy and whatnot.
I have been online since very late 90s and I saw the internet transform through the years. 2000s and 2010s were the best. For users and for businesses. Then big tech came up and it slowly killed everything. Mostly monopolisation, buyouts and exits, userbase saturation, extreme commercialisation of everything, tracking, privacy etc...
Today, as I am looking at the internet as a business owner from the European Union, trying to run an online service business is a DOA idea. Europe lacks everything and USA runs and owns everything. I cannot speak from outside point of view but by sheer luck I just wrote a post on linkedin exactly on this topic so I will merely summarise what I said there - problem in EU are languages, anglification and westward-looking user base. Customers in Europe see everything made at home or not in the western bloc(actually more likely just UK and USA) as not good enough, untrustworthy, unimportant, small and insignificant. If you try to compete digitally in English, you are competing with the whole world that is owned by USA and its endless flow of cheap capital. If you try to compete domestically in non-english language, your users won't take you seriously because you're nobody, you lack international users and recognition and capital backing you up and they do not care about you.
Europe has no infrastructure of its own for online businesses, startups, whatever. There are no or very limited supportive services(cloud, payment processing, cdn, accounting,..) and financing options(venture capital, incubators...). This is why USA is eating Europe's launch.
So the main struggle is not the business itself, it is getting customers. If you have money, you can waste it on advertising but it will be just that - a waste. And you will fill pockets of yet another USA company.
I might sound sour, but this is not just me. I see it everywhere. I am merely summarising the real world experiences here.
I have an idea, that many will find unpleasant, that could make EU competitive and am forming a plan on how to word it properly and get in touch with my EP representative to maybe get some things done in this regard. But I have little faith in the EU being able to turn this around. Especially as Ukraine is still an ongoing issue and the focus is mostly there instead of on domestic issues, like economy, energy and whatnot.