Switzerland could make a bet on building a cluster for start-ups that build personal information management systems

Aside from extending the existing support for the start-up clusters around ETH and EPFL there is a question if Switzerland wants to try and establish some application specific-cluster similar to “Crypto Valley” around Zug. If so, I would like to suggest personal information management systems as a very good fit for Switzerland as...

  • There is no international cluster yet or governmental support to build one (it is tangentially mentioned in some strategies https://www.aiforhumanity.fr/pdfs/MissionVillani_Report_ENG-VF.pdf#page=34)
  • The long-term potential of these systems has increased massively as of May 2018 due to the requirements for personal data portability in the EU GDPR
  • Simply looking at the valuations of tech giants that only handle parts of the digital data of their users one can easily see that this is a potentially huge market
  • It fits well with Switzerland’s reputation for privacy and (financial) data protection

(disclaimer: I do not own a financial stake in a PIMS start-up, however, I have advocated for the potential of this industry in other contexts https://www.der-bank-blog.de/das-digitale-ich/trends/25131/)