CES- We’re in Trouble!
Zoom in on this and look at who has booths.
I’ve been walking the floor at CES, from the moment the doors open each morning, and I was at Eureka Park about ten minutes after the opening of CES on the third day. It seemed like every Asian and European country was at their booth, ready and eager to make their pitch, many backed by companies such as Samsung and their own governments to be there. Meanwhile, a handful of startups from the US were late to show up, still empty 30 minutes later as if they couldn’t be bothered to staff their booths on time. There were a few from other countries that were also late to exhibit. There are no excuses for that.
Innovation, if measured by booths, isn’t happening in the US anywhere near as fast as it’s happening in so many other countries. Asians outnumbered Westerners by almost ten to one in many parts of CES, and they are doing it with better products and much more energy and enthusiasm. Where were all the US startups? Young, vibrant innovation and startup enthusiasm is the lowest I’ve ever seen for as long as I’ve attended CES. I’ll be eager to get the stats from the Consumer Technology Association. I want to know the total number of US booths in Eureka Park compared to all other countries. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the origin of a booth just by looking at race. I’d like to know how many US registries there were overall.
Innovation is still happening, and don’t get me wrong, there are always a lot of horrible ideas at Eureka Park at CES from all countries. But, this year, where were all the US entrepreneurs? While there were lots of US companies attending CES, I’m worried about the funnel. Also, what I didn’t see anywhere were companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and others getting behind the startup community while Samsung was there helping South Korean startups. I found the whole thing very alarming.
Meanwhile, the US representatives touting what the US Government could do to help startups, looked like an old Soviet-era government agency claiming to be “there to help,” and it looked creepy, right down to someone in camo fatigues representing the Department of Defense's work to promote entrepreneurship. Which from what I heard later is mostly on paper. Meaning, not the help they actually need.
I see a much greater commitment to excellence coming from other countries than I see in the US. I think we’re in real trouble on this one, and it will have an impact eventually. I wrote something similar on Substack that will go out this morning. I’ll update it with some data when it comes out.