Finland: the soil for innovation and entrepreneurship

▬ Linux was created by Linus Benedict Torvalds of Finland

▬ Angry Birds was developed by the Finnish company Rovio and released in 2009

▬ The world's first GSM mobile phone is launched by the Finnish company Nokia

▬ Slush Conference, the largest global startup conference in Europe was initiated by Finland in 2008.

Despite having a mere five million population and a small domestic market, Finland has been the place where world-famous companies and brands emerge during the 20 or 30 years characterized by the most intense international competition. Not only have Finland’s economic indicators (its GDP per capita, for instance, is approximately 1.22 times that of Japan) leapt to the front rank among developed countries in Europe, but it has also been ranked more than once at the top of the world in terms of its competitive edge, creating a miracle in the history of the global economy. All these achievements signify the huge innovation potential of Finland, a small Nordic country.

The whole country of Finland could be described as an incubator for innovations. In fact, Finland is the first country in the world where the national innovation system directs the establishment of economic policies of science and technology. Enterprises, universities, research institutions, the government, intermediary organizations and other institutions form a network through constructive interaction, allocate innovation resources, and coordinate national innovation activities. In Finland, almost every innovation project or even idea with potential can get their due support.

Take Linux as an example, it broke the monopolistic structure of giant firms in the form of an open source program and contributed greatly to the development of the software industry. As Linux continues to develop, it is applied in a wider range of areas: Linux occupies 50% of the server field; as of supercomputers, Linux has a share of more than 90%. Furthermore, Android, a widely welcomed operating system across the globe, benefits from the free open-source products of Linux during its development. Without Linux, the global Internet industry could not have developed so rapidly.

Apart from the above, Finland has always been recognized as a superpower in the traditional mobile game industry. Owing to its worldly renowned mobile game companies such as Supercell and Rovio Entertainment, Finland has given birth to Snake, Angry Birth, Clash of Clans and many other popular mobile games.

Finland is also the nation where time-limited game development competitions are held most frequently, and the Assembly which holds demoscene competitions was also founded in Finland.

SisuRace's fundamental ideas are derived from the Finnish culture; Many of SisuRace's core members are from Finland.