Interesting reaction over at The Guardian blog to our post yesterday about the StartUp2.0 competition for European web 2.0 sites. Guardian blogger Jack Schofield said that he only recognized 1 out of the 15 finalists. Jack wrote:
"What I find amusing is that I've only actually used -- or even heard of -- one of them: SlideBurner.
Can you do better?"
Hmmm, well I'm never one to pass up a challenge (particularly if it involves testing my web 2.0 knowledge!). So how many of the 15 Euro startup finalists did I recognize? Er.... [cough] 2. I guess I can console myself by saying that I'm not European! For the record the two I knew were Properazzi (property search engine) and Menéame (Spanish digg clone). Both of which we've posted about before on Read/WriteWeb.
One of the commenters on The Guardian post. renaissancechambara, pretty much summed up why even web 2.0 experts hadn't heard of most of these sites:
"...the combination of open source software and the free flow of information online means that it is easier for services to be created. These can be financed on a few credit cards and a personal loan. So there can be a deluge of products that look much the same as each other.
Many of the services mentioned are me-too products or iterations on existing web 2.0 products."
A little harsh, but true. One of the main themes in Read/WriteWeb's series on top international web apps is how many Silicon Valley clones there are. Digg, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, eBay, craigslist, etc - all of the top US sites have multiple equivalents overseas. Having said that, another main theme of our top web apps series is that of localization - and in the case of many European countries, that means language. So it's natural that english-language speakers haven't heard of sites that run in (for example) Spanish or French. However a number of the 15 finalists are either multi-lingual or in english...Thirdly, it could also be an echo chamber thing - most of the tech news that gets attention in blogs and news sites is US-centric.
It should be mentioned that a few commenters on our post noted that the StartUp2.0 list is not a definitive list - e.g. it was missing last.fm and reevoo.com.
Still, what's your score? How many of the 15 Euro startups did you recognize?
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: The Euro Startups Quiz - What's Your Score?.
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Interesting reaction over at The Guardian blog to our post yesterday about the StartUp2.0 competition for European web 2.0 sites. Guardian blogger Jack Schofield said that he only recognized 1 out of the 15 finalists. Jack wrote: "What I find... Read More
Gerade noch rechtzeitig zum Finale wurde ich auf StartUp 2.0 aufmerksam (gemacht),¬† einem Wettbewerb mit erkl√§rtem Ziel Europa’s Top Web 2.0-Applikation zu k√ºren. Die 15 Finalisten stehen jetzt fest und werden morgen, am 10. Mai 2007, in Madri... Read More
Here is a summary of the week's Web Tech action on Read/WriteWeb. Apologies for missing last week's wrapup, due to travel. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special RSS feed or by email:... Read More
1 week ago, ReadWriteWeb published an article about the 15 nominees of the startup2.eu competition. SlideBurner was part of them. This article made Jack Schofield, bloger at the Guardian, react with a post in which he was wondering who use or at Read More
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Only 1, SlideBurner too.. and I'm in the UK and involved in this industry, lol :)
But.. let's keep in mind that a) not everyone knew about this competition, and b) perhaps they wanted really new startups as entrants, which is fair enough.
Posted by: Peter Cooper | May 9, 2007 2:20 AMWell, users of Google Earth may recognize Panoramio.com, as Google added Panoramio layers on top of it a while ago: http://lifehacker.com/software/google-earth/google-earth-adds-wikipedia-panoramio-layers-220743.php
Posted by: RBA | May 9, 2007 2:28 AMHere is the link in the Google Blog that mentions Panoramio:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/opening-my-eyes-to-whole-new-world.html
PS: I don't work for Panoramio nor have any investment in the project, but I'm good friends with their founders and I think they've built a really great site :-)
Posted by: RBA | May 9, 2007 2:30 AMWell, I do know Tupalo, as their service includes Vienna as well as a number of international cities. And I quite like them.
Posted by: Richard Hemmer | May 9, 2007 3:54 AMI've also got two. But, there are so many startups out there that I sometimes don't recognize even those I wrote about (:
Posted by: Stan Schroeder | May 9, 2007 4:19 AMAs a full on brit, and web 2.0 engineer... i've heard of ...
urrr, one, i think. Tupalo sounds familar I think I must have accidentally clicked through to it once.
Posted by: Phill Midwinter | May 9, 2007 6:12 AMIt's worth mentioning that this is more indicative of the way any innovative web based product is treated in the UK.
We sadly have no equivalent to the Valley here, investment is very very difficult to obtain any interest for and VC are likely to bin your proposal if it contains the word 'internet'. I write as someone who did obtain investment over 3 years ago now - and the situation is no better.
This is why it's my ambition to move to the States asap and work in start ups over there. The lack of innovation here is a constant drain.
Posted by: Phill Midwinter | May 9, 2007 6:16 AMI've used meneame.net and heard of Panoramio, so only 2 here...
Posted by: Jope | May 9, 2007 7:23 AMAlfresco
http://www.alfresco.com/
Posted by: Jeffrey McManus | May 9, 2007 9:15 AMDon't forget about the all-famous http://popurls.com
Posted by: Sandy | May 9, 2007 10:05 AMI again think the language barrier of the contest organizers is causing some confusion. It appears to me they are considering "startups" to mean just that. New companies who aren't *that* recognizable, haven't taken millions in VC and do not have the web 2.0 talking heads yapping all day about potential acquisitions. These are small companies, busting their asses in a MUCH MORE unfriendly financial climate than many of those in the US.
Give credit where credit is due. startup2.eu is trying to showcase new and unrecognized projects which are coming out of Europe. The Last.FM level companies of Europe aren't covered in that definition, being that they are hardly new, hardly starting up, hardly worry about where their rent payment is coming from and hardly need the press coverage.
Posted by: Pete | May 9, 2007 10:40 PMWell, I find hipoqih.com very clever and not a clone. What people think out there?
Posted by: Gregorio | May 12, 2007 8:39 AMYou are right most of them were not known. I think that's a good sign as it means that there are many new projects starting up in Europe. They will probably be more known in 12 months!!
Posted by: Jose A. del Moral | May 13, 2007 9:06 AMI have tipped my readers around half of them before.
Posted by: Aibek | June 8, 2007 4:31 AM