Silicon Beach - Startups In Los Angeles

Silicon Beach is the Westside region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area that is home to over 500 tech startup companies. Major technology companies have opened offices in the region including Google, Yahoo!, YouTube, BuzzFeed, Facebook, Salesforce, AOL, Electronic Arts, EdgeCast Networks, and MySpace. The region is considered the second- or third-largest tech hub in the world, according to various reports.

This has had major impacts on the type and availability of office space and on home prices in Playa Vista, Playa Del Rey, Westchester, Santa Monica, and Venice, as these areas have become more desirable due to this influx. The effects are also spilling over into Marina del Rey which is attracting tech firms.

Start-up pockets have also emerged in nearby Culver City, West L.A., and El Segundo. Other areas include Downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood.

Startups

Silicon Beach is also home to a number of start-up incubators and accelerators, such as Amplify.LA, Science, Disney Accelerator, and TechStars Cedars Sinai. Higher education institutions in Silicon Beach include University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Loyola Marymount University and Otis College of Art and Design. The RAND Corporation is headquartered in Santa Monica. In the first six months of 2013, start-ups in Silicon Beach raised over $500 million in funding, and there were 94 new start-ups and nine acquisitions.

History

PC Magazine in 1983 reported that "some people are starting to call" Boca Raton, Floridaâ€"where IBM had developed its Personal Computer, and other technology companies had facilitiesâ€""Silicon Beach, in deference to the great valley of the West". In 1984 Silicon Beach Software was formed in San Diego, California. Silicon Beach Australia was used to describe that country's internet technology community in 2008. There are four significant areas in Australia that are nurturing start-ups: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth.