Andrew Keen is an Anglo-American entrepreneur, writer, broadcaster and public speaker. He is the author of the international hit “Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing our Culture” which has been published in 17 different languages and was short-listed for the Higham’s Business Technology Book of the Year award. As a pioneering Silicon Valley based Internet entrepreneur,... → Learn More
Few transatlantic entrepreneurs know both the European and American start-up scene as intimately as Seesmic and Le Web founder Loic Le Meur. So the first question I asked Loic when he came into the San Francisco TechcrunchTV studio last week was what American start-up entrepreneurs can learn from their European counterparts.
Nothing, Loic told me. Except, perhaps, the ability to invite each other out for lunch.
Europeans, on the other hand, have much to learn from American entrepreneurs. Most of all, Loic insists, European start-up entrepreneurs need to think globally and to stop copying American innovation. “DO NOT COPY”, Loic advises the Europeans – although this doesn’t stretch to intellectual property where he sees European media executives locked in the archaic business model of protecting traditional content.
This is the first part of a two part interview with Le Meur. Check back tomorrow to hear Loic defend his record as Seesmic CEO.
Loic to Europe: “Do Not Copy”
Why Le Web is a global, rather than European, event
Why Europe must wake up and protect the future
Louie, you and I were last month in Paris for President Sarkozy's EG8 event, in which Eric Schmidt spoke, Zuckerburg spoke, number of very prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, but Sarkozy, so to speak, stole the show in his opening remarks when he talked about civilizing the Internet. And this was extremely controversial.
What is, I know you worked in the past with some prominent French politicians...
Well, him actually.
Him, exactly, I didn't want to name drop too much. What is your opinion of the idea of a politician like Sarkozy being bent on civilizing the Internet?
I think, and I've said it in public a few times, that what we need to do is to protect the Internet from being civilized by the governments.
Jeff Job has actually made that point too.
Yes, I was about to say that, but you were faster than me. But I agree with that, you know, statement of Jeff. And I had my own. First event was awesome, by the way. Great networking with...
Lovely food.
Great food.
Even beat Le Web.
It was in the spring, so it was not cold. Incredible. No. You know, again, I also know those who organize it, so...
It was organized by publicists.
Mostly by publicists, yes. And it was very well organized. And great networking. I had my panel in it, so you see...and that panel was about European disruptive entrepreneurs. So we had, you know, the usual suspects: Brent Oberman, Maxim Ochsiny, and Jacques Ontremeau created like a...Now I hate to say a group like in France because he created it six years ago, ten, but that gives you an idea.
Anyway, all of them agreed that no one should civilize or, you know, make too many, you know, measures....Like, let the Internet free. Basically, that's what we're saying. The head of...he controls like 40% of the French Internet. He's the one...the number one ISP there free said, "I didn't understand my presence on stage, right?" So, basically, I think it wasn't very...I don't know...I respect his point of view, but I disagree.
It would be fair to say though that there are a number of prominent European entrepreneurs who would disagree with you, who are more sympathetic to Sarkozy. The CEO of Vodafone, for example.
Well, that's not a start up entrepreneur. Well, but he's still a powerful business figure.
Yeah.
Do you believe then that the government should have no role in the protection of individual privacy?
Minimum. I think it should be absolutely minimum. Like, if I harass you on the Internet or if, you know, your daughter is getting, you know, insane e-mails and you see someone...When we did Seesmic video, we had someone threatening us to hang himself on video. Right? What did we do? We call the police, right?
Because you shouldn't let that happen in real life if you see someone try to kill himself outside on the street, what will you do? Nothing? No. It's the same. I think it's minimum. Like something against the law should be punished same as real life. But we shouldn't try to regulate too much, for sure.
So I don't know about , I'm sure he thinks this way. What about the area of intellectual property because that's part where there's the most disagreement. It was a very controversial panel with Barlow, the Grateful Dead lyricist arguing very strongly against the idea of a strong defense of traditional copyright, whereas some large media companies that were there arguing the other way.
What is your position on that?
Well, here's what's happening and why it is so controversial. It has been four years. You have an entirely new business model for an industry like music, probably like movies very soon which is taking over the old business model completely. And you can see the new artists must make money not really from selling records.
They don't really sell those but from concerts, from events, from merchandise, from a lot of other things and that's when your business model from a community they create around themselves. That's one example.
And what I think is that Europe, again, is very much focused on protecting the past instead of preparing the huge opportunities of jobs, creating jobs around the new models. So Zynga created two thousand jobs a block away, right in San Francisco. Incredible! I am not saying I'm not comparing, apple and oranges but still you have a new world opening creating thousands of jobs, and another one which is in trouble.
If you're a government it's fine to talk all the time about protecting the past, and yes we need to be careful. But I think Europe needs to wake up and protect the future much more. They don't do that.
Is this something, though, somehow in the water in Europe about protecting the rights of the artist, of the author, of the writer, of the film maker. Is that something that Europeans can never change?
I don't think they can go against a rain that is falling, and if you talk to someone like Paolo Cuelo for example, who spoke at Le Web. He explained that he even has an initiative of boss I thing which is parrot Paolo, where he actually encourages people to take what it does and help create a community.
I think there are limits, of course, but I think offers a way too scared about what's happening to them, as a risk instead of opportunity and those who get it you can see the new bands growing online by getting all this word of mouth, and embracing Facebook and Twitter rather than fighting it. Are going to be very successful while the others will keep complaining.
So I think it's a question of a transition which is very violent, it's not really on transition. I think our government are too focusing on the past again. They should embrace the stock of pick system including run industries, music and video and not doing anything wrong but letting the Internet grow much more, which, by the way happens anyway.
Whatever they try, we have a law that can punish people in France from downloading illegal stuff. Instead of punishing, I think training is much more interesting and looking at the future and all the jobs that can be created. I'd rather see my President talk about creating millions of jobs on a mobile developers - that the young should learn how to code, for example, than focusing on the past all the time.
My kids are 10, 14 and 16 there were last week in Stanford learning how to code iPad and Android apps. I love that. That's looking at the future. There is a total shortage of mobile developers. Here is the future. You know how much is a mobile developer here? If you are a beginner, you get $100,000 plus.
If you are experienced, it can be $160, or $180,000. Incredible, let Europe prepare that more instead of complaining about the past.
Loic is the Founder and CEO of Seesmic. Seesmic is a powerful suite of social media management and collaboration tools that provide businesses and individuals with everything they need to build and manage their brands online. With applications on every platform, including mobile devices, and a marketplace of over 80 third-party plugins, Seesmic is the most comprehensive solution on the market.
Loic also founded and hosts the #1 tech event in Europe, LeWeb.net, with his wife Geraldine. LeWeb gathers together...
Seesmic is a powerful suite of social media management and collaboration tools that provide businesses and individuals with everything they need to build and manage their brands online.
With applications on every platform, including mobile devices, and a marketplace of over 80 third-party plugins, Seesmic is the most comprehensive solution on the market.
Seesmic is headquartered in San Francisco and was founded by French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur.
Few transatlantic entrepreneurs know both the European and American start-up scene as intimately as Seesmic and Le Web founder Loic Le Meur. So the first question I asked Loic when he came into the San Francisco TechcrunchTV studio last week was what American start-up entrepreneurs can learn from their European counterparts.
