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Leaving the EU would have very strong network effects and is IMO not an option for Facebook. The entry barrier to social networks is so low now that this could
by manmal 9y ago
Leaving the EU would have very strong network effects and is IMO not an option for Facebook. The entry barrier to social networks is so low now that this could trigger a mass exodus in the rest of the world.
- peoplewindow 9y agoLeaving doesn't mean erasing all the profiles. It just means shutting down local corporate presences. It'd suck for the employees but Facebook can run things out of Palo Alto just fine. I'm not sure what it'd involve for contracts and payments. But many EU firms have US legal presences too. They could easily buy ads on Facebook through their US presence. Multi-nationalism works both ways.
- Xylakant 9y agoLet them buy ads targeted to their EU customers through their US presence, fine the EU firm for circumventing the rules. Hard? Yes. Impossible? No.
- peoplewindow 9y agoFrom the perspective of the US company, then it's not them getting fined so not their problem. And if the EU wants to fine its own companies for buying adverts, they can go right ahead and do that. Doesn't seem very practical for the local economy though.
- tripzilch 9y agoYeah but there's many other, compliant, ways to advertise so they'll just do that instead.
- manmal 9y agoThe GDPR does not allow international players to store data on EU citizens without conforming to the rules. So if FB leaves in order to avoid conformance, then they have to delete all EU citizen data.
- kasey_junk 9y agoThe point is without a European corporate presence the EU loses its ability to enforce GDPR.
- kaybe 9y agoCan ads be sold internationally that easily?
- kasey_junk 9y agoNo idea but GDPR gives folks a lot of reason to figure it out.
- manmal 9y agoYou are right, this might be the case, someday.. but as long as they have their tax-free money parked in the EU, removing all legal entities from the EU will be very expensive..
- x0x0 9y agoWhy do you think social networks have cross country network effects? Xing and VK seem to be doing just fine.
- stochastic_monk 9y agoI’m completely unfamiliar with VK, but I’d love to believe that it’s a subtle nod to the Voight-Kampff test.
- x0x0 9y agosorry, vkontakte / vk.com
- manmal 9y agoThey are doing ok AFAIK, but are almost two orders of magnitude smaller than FB, user wise. I don‘t think Xing is even doing that well, they have started very aggressive monetization tactics recently, like forcing people to purchase a pro account in order to view incoming friend requests.
- stordoff 9y agoI don't know about _strong_ network effects, but part of the appeal of Facebook (for me) is that it's universal - visitors to the country (e.g. exchange students) and people I've met overseas (holidays) are all in one place. Further, it doesn't result in you being introduced to (possibly better) Facebook alternatives in those situations. It may not a strong effect, but there is definitely small cross-country effects IMO.