Five Things Tech: Europe, Chiplets, WhatsApp, Browser, Coolest Tech Jobs

This is what you should read right now.

Hello again, and welcome back to Five Things Tech!

While the US is trying to embrace for the impact of the second term of Donald Trump, Europe is trying to figure out what to do if MAGA really means more tariffs for European goods and less cooperation with Europe in general. In a sense that is a healthy discussion, but unfortunately it is coming much too late. European leaders have largely ignored tech in the last decades, while being busy talking about a distinct European way, but then didn’t really act upon it. Especially when we look at tech and entrepreneurship, something I have been focused on in all of my career, there has alway been a certain lack of interest when it comes to figuring out what a newly developed piece of technology could offer. The response was oftentimes something like “nice, but we have a system that works.” - obviously, change is hard, but if companies want to stay competitive, they constantly have to change and use tech to push forward. The European market is huge, but the startups all face the same problems: not one unified single market, but lots of different markets with distinct cultures. Adding different languages to the mix also doesn’t make it easier. The biggest disadvantage in comparison with the US or Chinese market: much less M&A activity, not mentioning the IPO at all as an exit path for startups. So while capital gets deployed in the early stages, growth through venture capital is limited at a later stage. I think this could all be changed by a better and distinct European ambition, which doesn’t just mean that startup founders should hustle more, but also that business leaders have to understand that they need startups as much as they need businesses as clients. Big and small companies working together would strengthen the economy of the continent and this could be stimulated by taxes. We could do so much more if we’d stopped gazing at whatäs happening in other markets and would just focus more on building the European digital economy.

Also in this edition of Five Things Tech: why chiplets are so fascinating, why WhatsApp dominates, why the browser will change and why suddenly cool tech jobs could be found at banks, although I seriously doubt that, but read for yourself!