Web Summit Lisbon is the city of Web Summit and Web Summit is in love with the city. For example, the Minister of Economy and the Sea started his speech at the opening of yet another edition of the Web Summit, in Parque das Nações. António Costa e Silva took the opportunity to announce support for €90 million startups with digital and environmentally sustainable companies. “In the coming days we will launch a financing of 90 million euros to coupons digital and help three thousand startups over the next four years,” the official said. The incubators will also be supported to improve services to these companies.
The minister underlined that the presence of the Web Summit in Portugal has created an innovation ecosystem over the past seven years. It is no coincidence, António Costa e Silva recalls, that today we have the largest number of unicorns as a percentage of GDP (gross domestic product). Not to mention that the value of technology has increased 15 times in recent years.
For António Costa Silva, Portugal has become a combination of surf and technology, nice weather and startups technologies, sunshine but also innovative solutions. The minister noted another Portuguese achievement: the fact that 65% of our energy comes from renewable sources. “We are one of the countries that is accelerating the transition,” he said.
The minister also emphasized that Lisbon houses the headquarters of the European Agency for Entrepreneurship and that with the review of the startups Portugal will have one of the most aggressive laws for this type of business.
“Technology can help solve the problems we face,” said António Costa e Silva, adding that we need to change the paradigm of cities. “We won’t be able to fight climate change without it,” he said with conviction.
A year after first taking the stage at the Web Summit, when he was the newly elected president of the Municipality of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas returned this year to show that he has delivered on some of the sustainability and innovation promises. realized.
The mayor of Lisbon spoke about the city’s commitment to carbon neutrality and its promise to create a “unicorn factory”. “Do you know what happened? [após o anúncio na última edição]? The next day, political parties and public opinion said it was impossible.”
“Some called me stupid,” he said, before confirming that the project is in operation and that it has nearly a dozen today. startups breed at Hub Criativo do Beato. “We want to transform this city into a place where the impossible meets the possible,” he underlined.
“We rely on Elon Musk to run Twitter”
The Binance founder and CEO was among the guests at the technology summit’s inaugural session, where he took the opportunity to clarify the reasons why he, along with Elon Musk, participated in the Twitter acquisition. “We wanted to support free speech. Twitter has always been a community that gives users a voice,” he assured in response to questions from Lisa Jackson, editor of The Times.
Last week, the completion of Musk’s Twitter acquisition deal stunned the world after months of ups and downs. Binance was part of the consortium for the acquisition, contributing about $500 million, and Changpeng Zhao says he believes in the Tesla founder’s vision for what is one of the best social networks. “We trust that Elon runs Twitter,” he underlined, guaranteeing that “it is a very important platform” and that the goal of this investment is to preserve freedom.
In recent days, Twitter announced that it will charge $8 a month for verifying accounts on the platform – marked with a symbol indicating trustworthiness. Zhao says he supports Elon Musk’s decisions and is not concerned about the company’s near-term profitability. “What we want to know is the long-term potential of the platform. We are confident that Twitter will be a much stronger platform in 10 or 20 years,” he said.
Also during the conversation with Lisa Jackson, Zhao spoke about the “crash” of the cryptocurrency market in the first half of the year and the decline in asset values that has been verified since April. “Crypto may be the only stable asset in this time of uncertainty,” he replied, recalling the history of bitcoin since 2014 and underlining that, despite several crashes, its price has risen.
Technology at the service of “terror”
The opening session of the technology summit was closed by a surprise guest who turned out to be Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska. “I admit that when it comes to technology, I’m just a user,” he said, adding that technology has the power to change the world. Just look at what is happening in Ukraine, where the Russia is putting technology “at the service of terror”, underlined the wife of the president of Ukraine, in an emotional intervention.
“Russian bombs deliberately choose civilian targets,” noted Volodymir Zelensky’s wife, who added that the specialties and technical knowledge of people like those participating in the Web Summit are on the battlefield in Ukraine today. However, many others are “helping the country recover”, he added, saying that “you too can help stop this terror”.
Source: DN
