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The parent comment was being unfair. There is one market where Europeans dominate both in sheer volume and in innovation: excuses. Excusing business, excusing

by n8cpdx 4y ago

The parent comment was being unfair. There is one market where Europeans dominate both in sheer volume and in innovation: excuses. Excusing business, excusing governments; an international pastime of the Europeans, apparently. Europeans did in fact exist before all of the listed examples came into being, and so could have outcompeted any of them even if they are now dominant. But I still think Europeans _could_ compete, even if culturally they are not prepared to be competitive. Amazon is only a fraction of retail sales and has huge weaknesses; Europeans who know their markets better could compete if they wanted to (especially with the huge amount of protectionism national governments are willing to engage in). LINE exists in Japan, presumably a smaller market than Europe that has managed to produce a viable WhatsApp competitor. Facebook was unstoppable until TikTok ate their lunch. Again, I’m astounded by the European affinity for excusing uncompetitive businesses.

fariszr 4y ago
> Europeans who know their markets better could compete if they wanted to This is not realistic. When amazon noticed diapers.com, they were basically forced to sell out. because amazon was already selling diapers at a loss and was ready to drive the price "down to zero". No body can compete with that. https://slate.com/technology/2013/10/amazon-book-how-jeff-bezos-went-thermonuclear-on-diapers-com.html https://slate.com/technology/2013/10/amazon-book-how-jeff-be...
- n8cpdx 4y ago
  Americans seemingly can. Walmart and Target do healthy business, despite facing the big and fearsome Amazon. So does Shopify and Shopify’s merchant partners. So does my local book store (the French say it is impossible for bookstores to compete with Amazon without absurd anti-consumer protections). Before Amazon was ascendant, I think it was Walmart that was the dominant player making sure a small company like Amazon could never grow to become competitive. I don’t understand the European culture of making excuses for uncompetitive business when time after time the Americans, and increasingly the Chinese, show that it is actually possible to innovate and disrupt entrenched competitors.
unity1001 4y ago
Yeah. And Europeans are astounded by American affinity for excusing socipathic corporations who bloat on uncontrolled cash influx floating their shares, giving them to power to profit from even murdering you Americans. From healthcare to guns to pink goo being sold as 'food'. Any country can 'compete' if they allow their society to be ravaged by such sociopathy. Until they face social collapse. Like the US is doing now.
- n8cpdx 4y ago
  Europeans have a lot going for them that should make them more competitive - social safety net, better regulation, ability to build infrastructure without local opposition. Gun violence is a huge drag on the American economy, so it doesn’t make sense to say “Americans are competitive because corporations can profit off guns”. Americans are competitive _despite_ massive regulatory failures and IMO could be quite a lot more competitive if we paired entrepreneurial ambition with basic government competence. By the way, “pink goo” (more commonly pink slime) is not dangerous, and is used to cut down on waste. It is the “ugly produce” of the meat world. I don’t see anything objectionable about pink slime that isn’t also objectionable about meat in general as a food.
  - unity1001 4y ago
    > Europeans have a lot going for them that should make them more competitive And they are competitive. They have a big tech space rendering every single product and service that US tech renders. Except, there is no such obligation in Europe to constantly hawk stocks to increase stock prices. From cloud providers to social networks, all kinds of things are in Europe. In China. In Japan. Americans dont hear about them. > Pink goo It was an example. Those corporations have no obligation to tell you what exactly they put in the 'food'.

by n8cpdx 4y ago

fariszr 4y ago

> Europeans who know their markets better could compete if they wanted to This is not realistic. When amazon noticed diapers.com, they were basically forced to sell out. because amazon was already selling diapers at a loss and was ready to drive the price "down to zero". No body can compete with that. https://slate.com/technology/2013/10/amazon-book-how-jeff-bezos-went-thermonuclear-on-diapers-com.html https://slate.com/technology/2013/10/amazon-book-how-jeff-be...

n8cpdx 4y ago
Americans seemingly can. Walmart and Target do healthy business, despite facing the big and fearsome Amazon. So does Shopify and Shopify’s merchant partners. So does my local book store (the French say it is impossible for bookstores to compete with Amazon without absurd anti-consumer protections). Before Amazon was ascendant, I think it was Walmart that was the dominant player making sure a small company like Amazon could never grow to become competitive. I don’t understand the European culture of making excuses for uncompetitive business when time after time the Americans, and increasingly the Chinese, show that it is actually possible to innovate and disrupt entrenched competitors.

unity1001 4y ago

Yeah. And Europeans are astounded by American affinity for excusing socipathic corporations who bloat on uncontrolled cash influx floating their shares, giving them to power to profit from even murdering you Americans. From healthcare to guns to pink goo being sold as 'food'. Any country can 'compete' if they allow their society to be ravaged by such sociopathy. Until they face social collapse. Like the US is doing now.

n8cpdx 4y ago
Europeans have a lot going for them that should make them more competitive - social safety net, better regulation, ability to build infrastructure without local opposition. Gun violence is a huge drag on the American economy, so it doesn’t make sense to say “Americans are competitive because corporations can profit off guns”. Americans are competitive _despite_ massive regulatory failures and IMO could be quite a lot more competitive if we paired entrepreneurial ambition with basic government competence. By the way, “pink goo” (more commonly pink slime) is not dangerous, and is used to cut down on waste. It is the “ugly produce” of the meat world. I don’t see anything objectionable about pink slime that isn’t also objectionable about meat in general as a food.
- unity1001 4y ago
  > Europeans have a lot going for them that should make them more competitive And they are competitive. They have a big tech space rendering every single product and service that US tech renders. Except, there is no such obligation in Europe to constantly hawk stocks to increase stock prices. From cloud providers to social networks, all kinds of things are in Europe. In China. In Japan. Americans dont hear about them. > Pink goo It was an example. Those corporations have no obligation to tell you what exactly they put in the 'food'.