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> I feel like every Stratechery piece on Europe is just plain bashing because Ben Thompson is allergic to regulation. Somehow extrapolating from one Indian comp
by darawk 6y ago
> I feel like every Stratechery piece on Europe is just plain bashing because Ben Thompson is allergic to regulation. Somehow extrapolating from one Indian company, Jio, to some sort of global vision of an internet while completely disregarding the European continent (which in pure market value obviously still is large) just seems like bad faith.
But he actually makes a very specific point:
> This Internet, though, feels like the worst of all possible outcomes. On one hand, large U.S. tech companies are winners, at least relative to everyone else: yes, all of the regulatory red tape increases costs (and, for targeted advertising, may reduce revenue), but the impact is far greater on would-be competitors. To put it in allegorical terms, the E.U. is restricting the size of the castle even as it dramatically increases the moat.
He's saying that under Europe's model, giant US tech companies are going to be even more locked in to dominance. The market will be less competitive, and have less room for European-grown companies to rise up. It's pretty hard to see how any regulations Europe might impose are going to substantially ameliorate the harmful economic effects of US companies dominating tech, and Europe's economy being relegated to the 20th century.
- tsss 6y agoAnd why is that bad? I don't care if the software I'm using is coming from the US and if there are going to be globally dominant European internet companies. The only thing that counts to me is getting a good product, which privacy regulations are critical for, and getting taxes, which also requires more regulation not less.
- bgorman 6y agoIf you were a European citizen you might be concerned about Europe's ability to compete in the Technology sector.
- craigsmansion 6y agoEurope's ability to compete in the Technology sector is just dandy. It's the EU's ability to compete in the "tech" sector that might fall behind, and maybe that's a good thing.
- tsss 6y agoLast I heard Germany was squarely situated in Europe.
- darawk 6y agoOf course you don't. But European citizens care about economic growth, because it provides work and creates wealth and tax revenue for European citizens.
- xavi 6y agoI think European regulations like GDPR or cookie laws have made the Internet worse, not better. They're not effective and make things more complicated for everyone. I think that people in government should design rules to provide equal opportunities to everyone. I think that will benefit you even if you see yourself only as a consumer. I agree with what the article says, the European regulations only benefit the bigger companies, which have the resources to handle the red tape.
- petre 6y agoDon't forget articles 15 and 17 (former 11 and 13 I think) of the copyright directive. Link taxes and content filters which only benefit the big tech corps.
- apexalpha 6y agoI disagree on the GDPR one. It's the only piece of legislation that protects my data online. Prior to GDPR any data that you create wasn't yours and was freely sold, traded and aggregated. Even if you asked Google, Facebook or whoever for YOUR data to be sent back to you; they wouldn't be obligated to.