The latest craze in the world of tech is to build a version of Silicon Valley in different regions. Africa has its tech-infused locations that begin and end with the word “silicon”. Do they really need to recreate what the Americans have done though?
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TechCrunch’s editor-at-large, Mike Butcher doesn’t seem to think so. Butcher suggested to the Net Prophet audience that another way could be conceived when building a tech ecosystem.
“We cannot reproduce 50 years of work. You just can’t do that,” says Butcher.
For Europe, web 2.0 was a good thing: people didn’t have to be organised. Social media help proliferate events and the thinking matured and startups came about. Europe ignored the Silicon Valley hype and began creating their own clusters. This gave birth to London’s tech city — Silicon Roundabout. This was not just limited to London but all over Europe, as the clustering effect spread.
These clusters make startups happen, and the venture capitalists also come to the party. This was good. Though Butcher warns that “fast-moving ecosystems are not democracies”.
He reckons that there is a filter mechanism in startups and most of the deals are happening “underneath” and not all of the truth is reported.
There have always been authoritative figures. “Where there are startups there are investors. And there are always gatekeepers,” says Butcher. Each tech ecosystem has gatekeepers to filter through the startups and the deals that are happening.
What’s next though?
We are all building the platforms of the future such as Google Glass and physically connected devices. It’s all very mobile-centric. Investors are banding together to build the next thing. But ‘Where is it all headed?’, asks Butcher.
“Europe’s markets are fragmented,” he says. “We need big markets that scale, where English is a platform — something Silicon Valley is ignoring.”
Butcher argues that this new platform is for the emerging tech worlds where new startups are being created. The point for Butcher is not building another Silicon Valley, but rather to build Silicon bridges that link up ecosystems across the continents.
