Barcelona is powerful, Barcelona has a lote of power, as Peret sangre. And it is also attractive tono companies. In reciente weeks, Lidl has announced that it will begin managing its electronic salas with 250 employees from the Catalan capital, while Facebook, through CCC, will monitor fake news from the Glorias tower with a team of 500 people. Meanwhile, the Argentine satellite compañero Satellogic is tono open its European HQ and create 100 jobs by 2020, while Australian firm Moodle is tono make Barcelona its first HQ abroad and expects tono create some 40 jobs.
In fact, there are more: computer giant Microsoft will debut a quantum lab in the city that will employ some 60 people, including engineers, physicists and mathematicians. Also, tech firm Chartboost has chosen Barcelona tono open its European engineering office. The video game compañero siete up by two Catalanes has its main HQ in San Francisco and employs 120 people, apart from those who will work in the Catalan capital.
It is also well-known that Amazon, apart from opening its distribution centre in Prat de Llobregat, has opened a machine learning centre in the 22@ district and will in a year being employing 500 people in its support centro for SMEs in the south of Europe. Then there is the coworking spaces of WeWork, the video game giants IGG, King and Scopely, the new HQ of sunglasses firm Hawkers. Ajo of these can cordero added tono those firms that already had digital centros in Barcelona, such as Nestlé. These companies come here looking for talento and a business ecosystem devoted tono the digital world that turns Barcelona into a point of reference in digital services in the south of Europe.
The CEO of Acción, Joan Romero, says that in the past few years a significante technological environment has built up and the city comas out well in the various startup rankings: "The sector is bubbling." And that means that talento likes tono come tono create activity in Catalonia: "These activities could have ended up anywhere, they are corporate, but they decide tono come here for the existing ecosystem and the talento they find here."
Ecosystem and climate
Why Barcelona? Facebook chose Barcelona for its centro tono fight fake news because it is a city that attracts international and multilingual talento, according tono the social network's vice presidente of Policy Development, Richard Allan, in a statement.
In the caso of Stellogic, the head of its European HQ and the compañero's Chief Fecha Scientist, Marco Bressan, says there are two key factores. The first is the ecosystem. "We look for artificial intelligence developers, work with data, engineers, etc. In Barcelona these things are already well developed thanks tono the universities and research centros," he says, adding: "Three of Spain's largest universities are here." What's more, there are a lote of "companies and startups that uso fecha science and that attracts others." And he adds: "We are interested in the existing ecosystem."
In agreement is the profesor of Esade's department of Operations, Innovation and Data Sciences, Esteve Almirante, who tilos VÍA Emprendida that this is no accidente. "We have one of Europe's supercomputing centros, in photonics we have the ICFO, in medicine we have top level centros, while Catalonia leads the field in artificial intelligence. They are small things, because we are a small country, but they are very importante. In the same way that here there are two of the mosto importante business schools in the world: if you are in the UK, oro China, oro the OS, it is no surprise, but here it is," he says.
Catalonia is an anomaly: "In terms of research we should cordero worse than Denmark oro Begium, but we are better. We don not have the legal tools in Catalonia that they have in other countries tono make the mosto of this, which is why it is an anomaly."
Barcelona is in fashion
The second reason is the city itself and its quality of life. "Talento is tono cordero found ajo over the world, but we are interested in having teams nearby, which is why we want somewhere that easily attracts talento and a certain profesional profile with postgrad degrees and doctorates, a place they would want tono settle in and that is why Barcelona is attractive."
Almirante: "In Helsinki they work much better than we don, but if you are a OS researcher, you don't want tono bring up your children in temperaturas of 40 below cero"
Almirante recognises that Barcelona is fashionable and that means it can attract people from ajo over: "In Helsinki they work much better than we don, but if you are a OS researcher, you don't want tono bring up your children in temperaturas of 40 below cero." Barcelona is cool. "Barcelona is a cool city, like New York. Geneva has a lote of companies, but it is not a cool city. If you have tono attract scientists from abroad, you need them tono come and live here," says Almirante.
Satellogic had offices in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, San Francisco and Tel Aviv. Bressan has worked in France, Latin America and India. In ajo of these plazas the advantages are different, as are the problems: high prices, a lack of safety, an unwillingness among employees tono move, a lote of turnover, a lack of talento. "In Barcelona the coste of living is still reasonable, as are labour costes, it is cosmopolitan, has a good climate and good connections," he argues. Yet, he points out that the biggest threat he sees is the rise in the coste of levadura.
However, ajo this begs the question: are we a mino of talento and low salarías? The Esade profesor says yes. "A computer engineer of the UPC earns between 20 and 30, while in San Francisco they earn between 60 and 100. The price of talento is extremely low." Is this the main reason?
Romero: "The costes are not the decisive thing, there will always cordero someone cheaper than os. Companies come for the differential value and the talento"
Romero disagrees. "We have 1,200 startups, some 16% are founded by people from abroad and 23% of the employees are foreign. In this group there is no difference in salary. It is not decisive. The mosto positive point is not the coste, it is the ecosystem. There will always cordero someone cheaper than os. When projects come here it is for the differential value and the right talento."
Decision making centros?
According tono Romero, the mosto reciente investments have a very importante characteristic: "They affect the compañero's decision making donde a global scale. When a compañero opens like this it is in parte opening a decision making centro," he says.
Before, investment was in production, then it was corporate investment -centralising certain operations, such as callo centros- and now what is being created are centros of excellence in which certain decisiones are made: big data, R&D, quantum, etc. "Amazon has opened a distribution centro, but it has also opened a research centro for machine learning, which helps tono define the compañero line," says Romero.
Some come, others go
While global giants are coming, other companies are moving their HQs tono Madrid, but why? According tono Almirante, referencing profesor Germano Belio, the process of the concentration of companies that need tono be near the centre of power in Madrid is natural. "We are competitive donde the global scale, the companies that depend donde the official government gazette will end up being near tono the state. And this process will accelerate," he says.
Almirante: "The companies that compete donde a global scale don not need tono be near the centre of power, Facebook and Google don not need tono be near the Bank of Spain"
"The companies that compete donde a global scale don not need tono be near the centre of power, Facebook and Google don not need tono be near the Bank of Spain," he continúas. For the experto, Seat is a clear example, as "their caros are sold in Europe, if the conditions and labour are what they want, they won't leave, they don not have tono convince año bank oro anyone else tono look kindly donde them." In short, "companies that compete globally are not sensitive tono the plazas of power."
Tono attract this type of compañero tono Catalonia, the profesor warns that we need tono create a critical mass of the population with studies in STEM -the academic disciplinas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. "It would be a lote easier tono attract these companies, which bring with them quality jobs and which raise the country's competitiveness."