Detroit became entirely dependent on a centralized system powered by a few massive companies. Silicon Valley has some of that, but for the most part is highly distributed. The thousands of startups that feed off the big auto companies can't exist without them. Silicon Valley doesn't die if Google and Yahoo fail to innovate.
That English speaking "niche" currently represents the vast majority the potential revenue. It's a lot harder to innovate than it is to internationalize your software, which virtually every successful company does.
The idea that the value of Twitter or Facebook is in the 5,000 lines of Ruby or PHP that it took to create them is seriously mistaken. Anyone (Chinese or not) can easily clone Twiter or Facebook. Just like almost any competent artist can clone a great painting. That's not the hard part.
That English speaking "niche" currently represents the vast majority the potential revenue. It's a lot harder to innovate than it is to internationalize your software, which virtually every successful company does.
The idea that the value of Twitter or Facebook is in the 5,000 lines of Ruby or PHP that it took to create them is seriously mistaken. Anyone (Chinese or not) can easily clone Twiter or Facebook. Just like almost any competent artist can clone a great painting. That's not the hard part.