The Paris region is ranked second, and south east England including Greater London third, in a ranking of Europe’s top 42 regions for the software industry.
The ranking provides “a panorama” of the regions that count in the European software industry, says Bernard-Louis Roques, CEO of Truffle. “Our study notably highlighted the major role played by Germany's Rhine-Main-Neckar region [...] which is marking its mark as a true European Silicon Valley.”
“We are delighted international recognition of the Rhine-Main-Neckar region as the centre of the European software industry is growing,” said Karl-Heinz Streibich, CEO of Software AG, which is the second largest software company in the region.
According to Streibich only five of over 5,000 software companies in the region are in Europe’s top 100. “The growth potential for the software industry in Rhine-Main-Neckar is enormous,” he said.
In the long run, the goal must be to have 100 companies with €100 million revenues in Europe. “This would be a major step in establishing Europe as a globally leading knowledge based economy and society,” said Streibich.
Roland Koch, First Minister of the State of Hesse attributed the success to a cooperative approach. “We see with pride and great pleasure that the many years of cooperation with the Rhine-Main-Neckar region and southern Hesse is paying off. The region is now, by far, at the top of the European league due to the great commitment of local enterprises and the establishment of a regional cluster management, supported by the Hessian state government.”
The ranking of Europe’s software clusters builds on two company league tables, the Truffle 100 France, which is now an accepted benchmark for business activity of the French software industry, and the Truffle 100 Europe.
Rhine-Main-Neckar’s 2009 revenues of €12.5 billion put it way ahead of the second ranked cluster in the Paris region with €2.4 billion in revenues for 2009, and south east England, which was just behind. Three UK clusters are in the top ten, at 3rd, 4th and 7th position.
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