I spent the end of September in Silicon Valley. If the only thing you know about Google, Facebook, and Apple is that the first is a browser, the second a social network, and that the third makes smartphones and laptops, then you’re missing out. All these companies and a host of others are deeply involved in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cars and more.

I left San Francisco airport and headed for San Jose by ordering an Uber. Uber cars have their own space at the airport where they pick up and drop off passengers, so as not to mingle with other taxi drivers. Even though traditional taxi drivers are on average almost twice as expensive, I think they still get at least ten times the number of passengers compared to Uber drivers. It stands to reason that only a small number of passengers, flying to Silicon Valley, actually have an Uber app on their smartphone, which is essential for calling one. Furthermore, I had the chance to see how traditional taxi drivers still dominated the space in front of the hotel and on the city roads. Uber is increasing its presence, but not nearly as fast as we would like to believe when we fret about taxi drivers losing their jobs overnight.

San Jose has transformed itself from a farming town into a global hub. Because the people wanted more. Because they wanted change.

All the largest car manufacturers in the world are moving parts of their R&D departments to Silicon Valley. Even though self-driving cars are already on the roads and it seems electric motors have emerged as clear winners, this is only the beginning. Will we still be buying cars or will we prefer to rent them? Will self-driving electric cars really be the only vehicles left on the road? What will they be like? What do the customers of the future want? What kind of solutions can manufacturers offer? This is why Silicon Valley is abuzz. Everyone is looking for the best user experience and computer software to run the new cars. Even the Chinese have come here. In a major way. They are buying up enormous areas for their companies and for their testing grounds. They went all out and bought NASA’s hangers. It is clear they want to seize the opportunity and become the automotive superpower of the future, when petrol and diesel internal combustion engines will no longer dominate the roads.

The world is not only changed by new technologies, but also by each passing generation. Partially because they don’t particularly like the things their parents thought most important, and partially because of a sense of urgency. They need to be concerned with how they’ll live in 70 or 80 years; they know that if nothing changes, their future holds a planet covered in at least two meters of plastic bottles where water and air are only available on prescription. They are aware they need to improve the way they exploit natural resources, which is why they find sharing things, when they don’t need to own them, second nature. The sharing economy has also caught on in more conservative business ventures, such as lending office space. WeWork is aiming to lend out approximately a million workspaces around the world by the end of 2017. As of late 2014, they had spaces at 27 locations. By the end of 2015, the number rose to 54. They were even awarded the title Most Innovative Company of the Year. They are currently opening seven to eight new locations per month. Anyone who rents a space with them becomes a member of a club. People from various companies who lease workbenches from them, socialize and help one another. The incredible melting pot of freelancers, start-ups, and small-business owners is already being further expanded by employees from large companies, like Pepsi Cola and Samsung. They want their workers to learn the business culture of the new generations, find potential co-workers and business partners.

At the grand opening of the – for now – fully Slovenian-owned ABC Global Home company in San Jose, a representative of the city, who visited Maribor 24 years ago, also said a few words. Her duty back then was to teach us how to transition from socialism to a market economy. She was visibly happy about how far we’ve come, that we came to her country and her city, and that we in turn can do something for them. She took the fact that we made it as something for granted. She was no longer our teacher, instead welcoming us as equal partners. After all, when she was born, her native San Jose was also not much more than a farming town. Today, it is one of the ten largest cities in the US and the capital of Silicon Valley. The rapid growth of high tech companies and the development of the electronics industry turned it from a farming town into a global hub at the turn of the millennium.

Because the people wanted more. Because they wanted change. Because they invested themselves, their strength, visions, energy and passion. There’s nothing you can’t accomplish with that! With only that!

First published in MANAGER FINANCE 13.10.2016 http://manager.finance.si/8850122/Aljo%C5%A1a-Domijan-Kako-smo-Slovenci-pri%C5%A1li-v-Silicijevo-dolino 

Photo: Igor Domijan, Aguatera

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In a few years, payment transactions and trade will be completely different from what we are used to.

If you are not buying things online and are not aware of the unbelievable growth of online sales, or if paying with PayPal still seems like a novelty to you, then you are behind the times. You probably do not know that there are new online retail companies providing services which attract more and more payment transactions. Will you continue to read if I promise to list three new European service providers whose individual worth exceeds EUR 1 billion?

The breathtaking growth of areas including online sales, cloud technology and the standardisation of devices (which allows virtually the same software to run applications on smart phones, tablets, computers, POS terminals and other devices) has enabled new service providers to enter the market as soon as they spot an opportunity. This time we are not talking about the sort of enthusiast that the market has a hard time understanding and accepting. We are talking about unicorns. I am not being romantic – this is the actual name given to start-ups who quickly achieve a worth of EUR 1 billion or more. Their businesses are shamelessly large, but even so, in Europe we have at least three unicorns in this sector alone.

Doubling the Volume of Business Each Year

Adyen (www.adyen.com) provides a seamless solution for mobile, online and in-store transactions, which enables merchants to accept almost any type of payment anywhere in the world. The solution is used in the largest stores and kiosks as well. Having received a financial injection worth USD 250 million from General Atlantic, Index Ventures and Felicis Ventures in December 2014, the company’s worth has been assessed around EUR 1.4 billion.

Its Dutch founders, Pieter van der Does and Arnout Schuijff, like to emphasise that as of yet they are not considering selling their company. And why would they? They double the volume of their business each year. At the moment, the company operates in 187 countries and their services are used by 3,500 global service providers, including Facebook, Burberry and Spotify. They can wait a few more years and then retire with EUR 30–50 billion in their pockets.

A Business Larger than Alibaba

Powa (www.powa.com) is a British unicorn. In June 2014, the company bought their smaller competitor, the Hong Kong-based MPayMe, for USD 75 million and expanded their services in the field of mobile payments. Although the purchase price amounted to the company’s sales over 2.5 years, it has proven to be a worthwhile investment. Today, Powa is worth around EUR 2.5 billion. Dan Wagner likes to boast that his business is larger than Alibaba.

Powa combines mobile payment services with online commerce services. PowaWeb provides cloud-based commerce services. PowaPOS is an application that transforms a tablet or smart phone into a cash register. PowaTag provides a new payment solution which is used by more than 1,100 service providers worldwide. All of these services operate online, offline and in physical shops – from the smallest boutiques to the largest shopping centres.

Banks Cannot Compete

Owners of Skrill (www.skrill.com) were less patient and sold the company to the London-based Optimal Payments for “a mere” EUR 1.1 billion. Skrill is in charge of payment transactions on eBay, Bet365 and Skype. In contrast to its competitors, Powa and Adyen, the company also provides money transfer for their users and operates in other fields where there are plenty of other unicorns.

If I reveal that Powa employs only 500 people, it becomes clear that banks simply cannot compete with the new services provided by these companies – companies which bring a new approach, quality and, above all, lower costs. In a few years, payment transactions and trade will be completely different from what we are used to.

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Ali bi bili pripravljeni za podjetje, ki nima lastnih prostorov in opreme, ima le nekaj več kot deset zaposlenih in ponuja brezplačno storitev, odšteti milijardo dolarjev? Facebook je na primer spomladi 2012 kupil Instagram za okroglo milijardo dolarjev. Vsi Slovenci in Slovenke, s katerimi sem se o tem pogovarjal, so bili prepričani, da je šlo v tem primeru za uveljavljeno podjetje z nekaj tisoč zaposlenimi, nepredstavljivo količino strežnikov in druge računalniške opreme. V resnici pa ste Kevin Systrom in Mike Krieger podjetje ustanovila oktobra 2010. Priljubljenost spletne storitve, ki omogoča delitev fotografij in videoposnetkov, je neverjetno hitro rasla, tako da so se po letu in pol že lahko pohvalili s sto milijoni aktivnih uporabnikov in 13 zaposlenimi. Ker podjetje drugega imetja pravzaprav niti ni imelo, vse je bilo namreč najeto, je Mark Zuckerberg za vsakega uporabnika brezplačne storitve plačal deset dolarjev.

Odločitev ni bila lahka: to je bila četrtina denarja, s katero je takrat razpolagal Facebook. Za primerjavo: Microsoft je v približno istem času kupil knjigarnarja Barnes & Noble, podjetje s seznama Fortune 500, s 658 knjigarnami ter dodatnimi 705 študentskimi knjigarnami največjega prodajalca knjig v ZDA, zgolj za 605 milijonov dolarjev. Tudi Microsoft precej globlje seže v žep, ko kupuje »mala« spletna podjetja. Ni šale, lo kupujejo Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Satya Nadella in Mark Zuckerberg, milijarde padajo.

Samo Google je od leta 2001 do danes za nakup podjetij porabil 28 milijard, med drugim za Youtube 1,65 milijarde in za DoubleClick 3,1 milijarde. Za priljubljeno igro Minecraft je Microsoft pred nekaj dnevi plačal že 2,5 milijarde dolarjev.

Če bi bil Outfit7 slovensko podjetje

Trenutno najbogatejša Slovenca Samo in Iza Login svojega podjetja sicer še nista prodala, a prepričan sem, da bosta zanj dobila precej več kot ocenjenih 1,1 milijarde evrov. Njuno podjetje je samo v treh letih z več kot milijardo naloženih Talking Tomov svetovni fenomen. In tudi onadva nimata toliko nepremičnin in zaposlenih kot Telekom Slovenije. Torej bolj ali manj enaka zgodba kot pri Minecraftu, Instagramu ali Yammerju.

Če bi Outfit7 postavil Talking Toma kot slovensko podjetje v Sloveniji in ga prodajal iz Slovenije, bi moral najprej narediti vse vmesnike v slovenskem jeziku, napisati, da poslujejo v slovenskem jeziku in našteti še preostale jezike. Na njihovi spletni strani bi moralo vse uporabnike na svetu čakati opozorilo, da njihovi piškoti ne škodijo, ter prošnja, da obiskovalci s klikom na »da« potrdijo soglasje za uporabo piškotov na njihovih straneh. O tem, kako Talking Tom spoštuje zasebnost, bi odločala naša informacijska pooblaščenka. Dobro smo si zaprli vrata, ali ne!

Z isto pametjo in delom si lahko revež ali pa milijarder

Kako globoko je nerazumevanje sodobnih trendov v našem okolju, pokaže tudi hiter vpogled na področje zakonodaje, ki ureja avtorsko delo in pravice. Kot avtorja, ki ne bi bila v delovnem razmerju, bi bila Samo in Iza Login za svoj honorar obremenjena s približno 79 odstotki.

Če pa bi po nekem naključju Talking Toma narisala kot zaposlena v kateri izmed slovenskih marketinških agencij za TV-reklamo ali morda kot aplikacijo za Murino majico, bi bila reveža. Njuna ideja bi pripadla podjetju, v katerem bi delala.

Slovenska zakonodaja namreč v zakonu o avtorski in sorodnih pravicah v 101. in 102. členu še vedno odreja: »Kadar avtorsko delo ustvari delojemalec pri izpolnjevanju svojih obveznosti ali po navodilih delodajalca (avtorsko delo iz delovnega razmerja), se šteje, da so materialne avtorske pravice in druge pravice avtorja na tem delu izključno prenesene na delodajalca za deset let od dokončanja dela, če ni s pogodbo drugače določeno.« In praviloma ni določeno. Na koncu bi najverjetneje ustrezno zakonsko podlago za nekaj svojih odstotkov našel tudi Sazas.

Hiša z vrtom

Z isto idejo in istim delom bi bila Samo in Iza Login v Sloveniji v najboljšem primeru vesela, da bi našla rešitve za vse birokratske ovire in bi potem kot podjetnika lahko sproti plačevala vse račune in davke, imela bi hišo z vrtom in srednje dober avto, zunaj Slovenije pa sta na poti do statusa milijarderjev. Se še sprašujete, kje Slovenija izgublja denar? Kot je povedal Joc Pečečnik, eden izmed najbogatejših Slovencev: »Povsod po svetu sem znal zaslužiti, doma pa niti evra.«

Mi bi še šivali srajce

Seveda je vprašanje, kako bo brez sprememb lahko kdorkoli zaslužil dovolj. Če na eno stran postavimo milijardo dolarjev, ki jo ustvari vsega nekaj ljudi v dveh ali treh letih, in na drugo stran dodano vrednost v proizvodnih podjetjih, je nesorazmerje očitno. Nemogoče je danes narediti toliko srajc, kot lahko naložiš aplikacij. Mi pa še vedno iščemo vlagatelje, ki bi vlagali v proizvodnjo srajc, in odganjamo celo tiste Slovenke in Slovence, ki znajo zaslužiti s svojimi idejami, znanjem in kreativnostjo.
Prvič objavljeno 11.11.2014 http://www.finance.si/8812590/Kako-bi-mi-birokratsko-ubili-Izo-in-Sama-Logina

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