Estonia: The home of eTestware
At the start of 2022, eTestware will officially turn 8 years old. Our partners on theICEway, ICE and CRIBB Cyber Security, are also both approaching anniversaries. The former will be 15 next May and the latter is 5 next week! As such, we are all feeling a deep sense of nostalgia so today, we’ve decided to look at Estonia: The home of eTestware. This is where it all began for us and if you have never been, you are most definitely missing out…
The Silicon Valley of Europe
Estonia is situated in Northern Europe and bordered by the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea, Latvia and Lake Peipus and Russia. The mainland is joined by 2,222 islands and there is a humid continental climate. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and along with Tartu, is one of the largest cities. For further reading on Estonia’s historical and geographical history and more, the Wikipedia page is well worth a look.
As IT specialists, we are then far more interested in the rich technological aspects of the country. Estonia is often referred to as being Europe’s Silicon Valley and with good reason. Since the early 2000s, the tech industry has been buoyed by a huge range of Estonian start-ups, including Skype and then more recently, Bolt. This Computer Weekly article expands upon the tech start-up scene in general.
Estonia has one of the highest start-up rates per capita and boasts innovative Government policies and education initiatives. School-aged students are taught technology subjects including programming and robotics. The country is widely regarded as being the most advanced digital society in the world, where paper truly is a thing of the past. Digital ID cards allow for the payment of taxes, online voting and more.
When eTestware began right-sourcing – providing outsourced software testing – its base was in Tallinn. This magnificent city continues to be our main home and we are delighted to say that our Estonian software testers are every bit as efficient as you might expect!
Tech-related facts about Estonia
- Estonia has one of the world’s fastest internet speeds, with an abundance of free public Wi-Fi access
- Anyone can become an e-resident of Estonia
- It is possible to found a company in around 5 minutes and it is cheap, too
- Income tax returns can be easily completed in Estonia (95% are submitted electronically)
- 99% of bank transfers are made electronically
There is so much more to learn about Estonia, the home of eTestware. We will no doubt produce more content about it in the weeks ahead. We are delighted to have been delivering software testing for almost 8 years. It would not be a spoiler then to point out that there will be celebrations throughout January and February!