How Old Are Europe’s Tech Companies?

In a previous infographic, we provided an overview of the age of the world’s (mostly American) tech giants. Then we had a look at a selection of Asian tech companies, showing that some are dinosaurs of the tech age while others have just about hatched, but already have taken over worldwide markets, such as Toshiba, Huawei or ByteDance. But, Statista’s Claire Jenik asks, what about the European technology companies?

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Founded about a century and a half ago, telecom equipment manufacturers Ericsson and Nokia are making their mark among Europe’s tech oldies.

The Swedish telecommunications pioneer, founded in 1876, was one of the first companies to manufacture and market telephones. As for the Finnish Nokia, its history is a little different: once a manufacturer of toilet paper, the company became a conglomerate in the 20th century and then turned to the electronics industry in the 1960s, before becoming a leader in mobile telephony in the late 1990s.

With about half a century on the clock, we then find IT and software giants, such as Capgemini, created in 1967 in Grenoble, and the German SAP, born in 1972. Much younger but born more than a decade ago, the music streaming services Spotify and Deezer, as well as the electronic payment platform Adyen. They are among the winners of the digital revolution and are today heavyweights in their respective industries. Finally, among the European “youngsters”, we can cite the Franco-German specialist in teleconsultation, Doctolib, who will be celebrating his 8th birthday this year as well as the 8 year-old British online food delivery service Deliveroo.