3 ms·

>Europe has no homogeneous consumer market for tech giants like the US or China which can propel tech firms to gigantic size. Yet they use Google and Facebook

by Aunche 5y ago

>Europe has no homogeneous consumer market for tech giants like the US or China which can propel tech firms to gigantic size. Yet they use Google and Facebook all the same. WhatsApp was an American company that wasn't even used in America but dominates Europe. As far as domestic companies go, Nokia was a former megacorp and SAP is still one today, which proves that big tech has always been a possibility there. However, they were founded ages ago.

suction 5y ago
The state of mind is changing though, especially with Facebook - Europeans are aware what happened to the US in the last few years and are scared of a new wave of fascism powered by High-Tech social networks and fake news, more so than US citizens. This won't lead to a European competitor for Facebook though, just to regular people shunning everything that's made in the US. So in the long term only China will profit from the US's tendency to create (too) big corporations. The bigger is better mindset is ultimately not compatible with European values.
j_wtf_all_taken 5y ago
But what has Whatsapp to do with innovation? There's nothing innovative about a messenger app. They only thing they did is degrade privacy even further.
- midasuni 5y ago
  Whatsapps original purpose wasn’t where it reached its niche. It was in the right place at the right time - it launched as it became easy to distribute apps, and it used free data (wifi or gprs) to undercut sms. This latter fact wasn’t valuable in the west, but was great in poorer countries. This built up the network, and unlike the European and academic way of building open networks and software (web, linux, email) it captured the walled garden. I have no idea why it was valued at however many billions though even with that. There’s nothing special about WhatsApp that signal and telegram don’t do other than that existing network, primarily driven by laziness of the consumer (as there’s no reason you cant have all the apps installed)
  - j_wtf_all_taken 5y ago
    > primarily driven by laziness of the consumer oh yes :( > unlike the European and academic way of building open networks and software (web, linux, email) it captured the walled garden That's why politics should make sure those walled gardens have huge holes all around those walls. And no, its not the politicians fault, its the fault of the voters that they don't put politicians in power doing these things.

by Aunche 5y ago

suction 5y ago

The state of mind is changing though, especially with Facebook - Europeans are aware what happened to the US in the last few years and are scared of a new wave of fascism powered by High-Tech social networks and fake news, more so than US citizens. This won't lead to a European competitor for Facebook though, just to regular people shunning everything that's made in the US. So in the long term only China will profit from the US's tendency to create (too) big corporations. The bigger is better mindset is ultimately not compatible with European values.

j_wtf_all_taken 5y ago

But what has Whatsapp to do with innovation? There's nothing innovative about a messenger app. They only thing they did is degrade privacy even further.

midasuni 5y ago
Whatsapps original purpose wasn’t where it reached its niche. It was in the right place at the right time - it launched as it became easy to distribute apps, and it used free data (wifi or gprs) to undercut sms. This latter fact wasn’t valuable in the west, but was great in poorer countries. This built up the network, and unlike the European and academic way of building open networks and software (web, linux, email) it captured the walled garden. I have no idea why it was valued at however many billions though even with that. There’s nothing special about WhatsApp that signal and telegram don’t do other than that existing network, primarily driven by laziness of the consumer (as there’s no reason you cant have all the apps installed)
- j_wtf_all_taken 5y ago
  > primarily driven by laziness of the consumer oh yes :( > unlike the European and academic way of building open networks and software (web, linux, email) it captured the walled garden That's why politics should make sure those walled gardens have huge holes all around those walls. And no, its not the politicians fault, its the fault of the voters that they don't put politicians in power doing these things.