Internet entrepreneur and founder of technology venture capital firm Atomico Niklas Zennström says Silicon Valley is no longer the only technology hub in the world. In his report on the Financial Times, he writes that other technology hubs in cities like London, Berlin and Beijing are challenging the supremacy of Silicon Valley. Zennström says he is very excited at this turn of events. He writes, "In fact, 10 years ago when we were building Skype from Sweden, one potential investor told me that he would invest on condition I moved to Silicon Valley. I did not move and he did not invest."
However, the Skype co-founder believes that the effect of the geographic battle for supremacy is that it makes location less important. The internet itself has allowed nearly everyone to access the same information and for most people, has done away with the need to be near a data center. He added that investors like him are searching the globe for promising firms that they can support.
Zennström acknowledges that each location offers benefits and drawbacks, citing for example the ease with which one can find top computer scientists in San Francisco but the ease with which they can be retained in Helsinki. However, where a company is founded does not predict its chances at making it big. Zennström writes, "Today, the simple truth is that great companies can come from anywhere."
The internet investor believes that in the technology industry, the way it is in life, it is where you are going that matters, not where you came from. He thinks that a firm must have international ambitions at the start because with the growth of global internet access in recent years, the biggest opportunity lies in worldwide expansion.
Zennström concludes, "So as the war of the tech hubs plays out, perhaps Silicon Roundabout will one day rival Silicon Valley, or perhaps it will not. But, for the London entrepreneur who dreams of becoming big in China, that is not going to hold them back."
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