4 ms·

It's easy to create those apps when there is no external competition. China created every major internet service U.S has. EU can easily do the same. The point

It's easy to create those apps when there is no external competition. China created every major internet service U.S has. EU can easily do the same. The point is FB pay tax to US, and a EU-based FB will pay tax to EU. EU actually want to copy GFW , see https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2020/648784/IPOL_STU(2020)648784_EN.pdf https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2020/6487...

jariel 6y ago
Unfortunately, all of these answers are off the mark. A) Europe has tons of bright people and tons of technical talent - this is not the ussie. B) Governments don't create stuff. So the 'EU' is barely a government it's not 'they' who can go and make something, or 'have it made'. Even the US gov. would suck bad at copying FB. Granted, if there were no competition, substitutes would arrive. C) Europe does not have quite the dynamic leadership exhibited in the Valley. Maybe there would be something pop up, but it probably would be a bad clone, it might not have all the nimble features. FB advertising engine is complex, massive, they have huge ad sales division. This is the $$$ the pays for everything. D) EU is still highly fragmented, and not an immigrant place like SV. Better to think of SV as really a 'global centre' that happens to be in America. Tons of talent from around the world, they come for the money and adventure, not so much to be 'American'. E) Europeans value quality of life a lot, and in some things it's fine, but in some industries ... it means less competitive. F) Europe esp. Germany, does not 'get' software in the way SV does. So Europe has all the pieces but they are not quite aligned. It's not at all 'easy' to fire on all cylinders and create amazing new experiences. ByteDance et. al. have zillions of workers, working cheaply, often 7 days a week. So Europe is good at R&D, Hardware, Lifestyle stuff, and stuff that doesn't need huge scale and major talent depth, things that don't move 24/7. But EU is not going to build something 'better' than FB or Google anytime soon. But they discover good drugs and make good cars etc..

jariel 6y ago

Unfortunately, all of these answers are off the mark. A) Europe has tons of bright people and tons of technical talent - this is not the ussie. B) Governments don't create stuff. So the 'EU' is barely a government it's not 'they' who can go and make something, or 'have it made'. Even the US gov. would suck bad at copying FB. Granted, if there were no competition, substitutes would arrive. C) Europe does not have quite the dynamic leadership exhibited in the Valley. Maybe there would be something pop up, but it probably would be a bad clone, it might not have all the nimble features. FB advertising engine is complex, massive, they have huge ad sales division. This is the $$$ the pays for everything. D) EU is still highly fragmented, and not an immigrant place like SV. Better to think of SV as really a 'global centre' that happens to be in America. Tons of talent from around the world, they come for the money and adventure, not so much to be 'American'. E) Europeans value quality of life a lot, and in some things it's fine, but in some industries ... it means less competitive. F) Europe esp. Germany, does not 'get' software in the way SV does. So Europe has all the pieces but they are not quite aligned. It's not at all 'easy' to fire on all cylinders and create amazing new experiences. ByteDance et. al. have zillions of workers, working cheaply, often 7 days a week. So Europe is good at R&D, Hardware, Lifestyle stuff, and stuff that doesn't need huge scale and major talent depth, things that don't move 24/7. But EU is not going to build something 'better' than FB or Google anytime soon. But they discover good drugs and make good cars etc..