1. Four Finnish students developed the world’s first Internet browser with a graphical user interface.In 1991–1992, Kim Nyberg, Teemu Rantanen, Kati Suominen and Kari Sydänmaanlakka created Erwise, as a combined master’s project. Erwise introduced capabilities that we now take for granted – multiple fonts, hyperlinks presented as underlined text, links that opened a new page and the ability to load multiple pages.
2. Finland is the first country in the world to declare Internet access a legal right. In 2010, the government of Finland announced a digital agenda, stressing the central role of the Internet in the lives of its citizens. At the time, 96% of Finns had Internet access – one of the highest rates in the world. By 2015, providers were required to offer a low-cost 100 Mbps connection to everyone.
3. A Finnish engineer developed the Linux operating system. In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a student at the University of Helsinki, began work on his own operating system kernel. Torvalds released the open-source operating system called Linux in October 1991. The Linux kernel is used in Chrome/OS and Android. Today, Torvalds continues his work at the Linux Foundation.
4. Finnish company Rovio Entertainment hatched Angry Birds, one of the most downloaded video game series of all time. In 2009, Rovio Entertainment released the first version of the mobile app Angry Birds for Apple iOS. Other platforms and a series of games followed. By July 2015, it had been downloaded more than three billion times.
5. Finland ranks #1 in the world in coffee consumption. What is powering Finland’s workforce? A yearly average of 9.6 kg of coffee, or 2.64 cups per day per person. Coffee culture is important in Finland. Finns drink coffee all day long, both at home and at work, and decaf is almost non-existent.