Silicon Valley comes to Davos

Silicon Valley comes to Davos

by M. B. | DAVOS

ALTHOUGH the best-known leaders of corporate America, starting with Jeff Immelt of GE, were noticeable in Davos by their absence, Silicon Valley was out in force, and determined to make news. Your correspondent was at dinner with Reid Hoffman when he interrupted the conversation to say that the firm he had founded, LinkedIn, had filed to go public five minutes earlier, and that he could not discuss it any further as he was now in the job-networking website's pre-IPO quiet period.

Andrew Mason, the founder of Groupon, a discounting website, was also in Davos, enjoying his first 15 minutes of fame for running what by some measures is the fastest-growing start-up in the history of the universe.

So too was Barry Silbert, the founder of Second Market, which has been letting Facebook insiders sell their shares at rapidly escalating prices. There was much debate among the Silicon Valley crowd about whether Second Market has a big future, by allowing founders of startups to bank some money without going public or selling the firm, or a gloomy one, with its main source of business drying up as, now seems inevitable, Facebook looks like going public next year at the latest.

In recent years, Google has been the main provider of Silicon Valley coolness at Davos, not least through its legendary Friday night party. Whereas the McKinsey party on the Thursday night has thrived because it never changes—always giving Davos Man and Woman plenty of opportunity to work up a sweat by flying in the usual terrific band—Google has relied, fittingly, on innovative party curation. But this year's party was too similar to last year's, including the same over-loud music, fishy food served by waiters in costume and obnoxious bouncers.

Unlike in some previous years, there was not even a sighting of the Google Guys, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, strutting their stuff on the dance floor: they both followed the trend for top American executives staying home this year.

Bono's return was the only significant appearance of a genuine celebrity, though for many Davos People the most exciting "celebrity" sighting was of Sean Parker, the founder of Napster, a pioneering music-sharing website—though this was mainly due to what he describes as a "character with the same name as me" in a film about the early days of Facebook that he enthusiastically denounced during Davos, "The Social Network". The next big thing in tech, according to Mr Parker? "Synchronistic communication", whatever that is.

Just before meeting Mr Parker, your correspondent interviewed Daniel Ek, the Swedish founder of what is regarded as the heir to Napster, a music sharing site called Spotify. This is that rare thing, a hot European tech start-up. American music lovers will be pleased to learn that Spotify should soon be available on their side of the Atlantic.

Although nobody was talking about Google this year, there was scarcely a conversation in Davos that did not mention Facebook—and the social-networking monster did not even fulfil its responsibility to throw a party. Events in the outside world helped, with Facebook being credited with a crucial role in the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. The firm was not represented by its controversial boss, Mark Zuckerberg, but by its two top female executives—itself somewhat revolutionary for the still male-heavy Davos stage.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, personified the shift away from Google, as she had previously attended Davos as an employee of the search firm, where she had held a similar role. Randi Zuckerberg, Mark's sister and Facebook's marketing supremo, also broke new ground on Davos panels by being a pregnant female executive in her 20s—though sadly the impending new arrival meant that she could not repeat her legendary past performance of Son of A Preacher Man in the smoky Piano Bar where so many Davos attendees congregate after all the other parties are done.

The Davos conversations about the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt highlighted a tension that was present in many of this year's discussions about technology. More than ever, there was agreement that social media are dramatically disrupting many traditional arrangements around the world, in business and in politics. Yet there was also a growing sense that this may not be an entirely good thing. Yes, the change of government in Tunisia was celebrated enthusiastically, putting in power executives from firms familiar to Davos Man such as Sungard and Fidelity. But, after the obligatory condemnation of a government turning off the internet, there was much debate about how to feel about events in Egypt, and the prospect of a Facebook-enabled rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.