The Week of IO+: The European alternative
Every Sunday, our weekly review offers an overview of the most interesting stories around important innovations.
Published on March 9, 2025
© Solen Feyissa - Unsplash
Bart, co-founder of Media52 and Professor of Journalism oversees IO+, events, and Laio. A journalist at heart, he keeps writing as many stories as possible.
With international tensions rising and the threat of a trade war putting geopolitical stability under pressure, Europe faces a crucial choice. The increasing friction between world powers forces a reconsideration of technological dependencies. As concerns about digital sovereignty, data privacy and economic influence grow, the question arises: is this the moment for Europe to choose its own technological solutions and pursue greater autonomy?
From AI assistants to email providers and navigation apps, Europe has strong alternatives to the American tech giants, but these often remain in the shadow of Silicon Valley. Now that governments are considering stricter regulations on foreign technology and consumers are becoming more critical of data collection by non-European companies, it may be time to switch to European digital services. Here’s an overview of promising, privacy-oriented and competitive European tech alternatives.
We made a selection: read it here.
If you want even more, we recommend the site “European Alternatives”. It has hundreds of alternatives in dozens of categories. Impressive!
Barcelona
This week, we were at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona. Elcke Vels immersed herself in the world of mobile connections, and it made a huge impression. Read about her experiences here in “From sea to operating theater: the whole world connected,” and also check out her video reports on Instagram.
DATA+ Newsletter
Talking about Elcke: did you receive her latest four-weekly newsletter on the world of data? It was sent out yesterday to a crowd of more than 20,000 subscribers. Want to be part of this regular easy-to-understand breakdown of developments that always seem so complex? Just subscribe.
Meanwhile, there was plenty of other news:
- EU eases car emission rules in new action plan
- Academia as driving force behind autonomous systems
- Axelera AI receives €61.6 million to develop AI chiplet
- 'Chefs can shape the future of food'
- Rising demand puts further pressure on the electricity grid
- Recycling glass for solar panels reaches breakthrough
- How close are we in the Netherlands to '15-minute cities'?
- Investment of the month: 'The Netherlands can lead the protein transition'
- ObjectivEye: revolution in recruitment with AI precision
- Regulation, CCS and charging infrastructure: this is how the EU is working on green mobility
- Self-employment legislation also poses major challenges for start-ups
Haven't had enough yet? Here you can read everything we published last week. Have a nice & sunny Sunday and an innovative and entrepreneurial week!