‘Easier to ship wine than buy an MP3’ across borders in Europe: EU falling behind in tech race as Chinese start-ups rise to top, says Estonian leader
With 6 of world's top 20 start-ups now Chinese, Ilves hails country's rapidly developing ecosystem, says Europe risks missing next technological wave due to red tape, data-privacy concerns
Chinese start-ups have quickly assumed some leading roles on the world stage by positioning themselves on the cutting-edge of technological innovation, but US firms still dominate global business, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said on Wednesday.
“Among the world’s 20 largest start-ups nowadays, 14 are American and the rest are Chinese,” said Ilves, a former journalist who ascended to the presidency in 2006.
He made the comments in neighbouring Finland at SLUSH, Europe’s largest start-up conference, which is taking place this week in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.
Our technology advances, according to Moore’s Law ... But the legal system [in the EU] does not.
"Of course, all start-up companies want to be big," he said.
“But I think our [European Union] legislation hasn’t caught up with the technological reality,” he added.
Ilves was referring to policy issues like different tax regimes, controversial new “safe harbour” rules aimed at improving data protection, and the EU’s lack of a single digital market.
“It’s easier to ship a bottle of wine from Portugal to the north of Finland than buy an MP3 across borders,” he joked during a panel discussion.
