We have all heard of the famous Silicon Valley in the United States. But what is it exactly and why is it so appreciated?
Silicon Valley is actually an invented name, as there is no "valley" with this name geographically. The nickname defines the southern part of the Northern California Bay Area in the United States of America. The region occupies approximately the same area as the Santa Clara Valley, where it is concentrated, including the city of San Jose and other surrounding cities. Among these cities, an MIT study showed that the most active cities and those that represent the base of startups in the field are Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale.
The term "Silicon" was introduced due to the large number of innovators in chip technology based on silicon. Gradually, the name expanded and came to refer to all high-tech enterprises in the area. Currently, the phrase is generally used as a metonym for the American high-tech economic sector.
The area itself is very well developed, hosting many of the largest high-tech corporations in the world, as well as thousands of startup companies in this field. Among the most well-known and powerful giants headquartered in Silicon Valley are: Google, Facebook, Apple Inc., Yahoo!, Adobe Systems, eBay, Cisco Systems, Electronic Arts (gaming company), Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Oracle Corporation, etc.
Here are the main headquarters, but also some production units, especially in software and online services. All small entrepreneurs or companies at the beginning want to get here, but the costs are extremely high. That is why many companies – even the largest ones – choose to hire remotely and offer collaboration contracts or project-based contracts. It is well known that we have many exceptional programmers who work for major companies worldwide without actually living in America.
Real estate prices in this area are very high; very simple houses, located in ordinary neighborhoods for American cities, sell for over 2.5 million dollars. Rents are equally high. For example, in Palo Alto, the lowest rent for an apartment is around 2500 dollars per month, so not everyone can afford to pay such rent.
The success of this area lies precisely in the large concentration of big and small companies, companies working in the same fields, suppliers and customers coming together in the same place, with supply and demand being easy to reach and survey. The future belongs to these types of areas, concentrations of specialized companies, places where ideas, needs, and offers can be easily exchanged.
