4 ms·

The opposite is also true, what Big Tech can do without the EU? It's their most profitable market and it's not like they are going to make up for the loss by se

The opposite is also true, what Big Tech can do without the EU? It's their most profitable market and it's not like they are going to make up for the loss by selling in China. The US tech industry doesn't have as much leverage as they think they do, the hardest part to replace is the hardware, which mostly isn't built in the US anyways That reminds me of Mark Zukerberg which threatened to leave a while back... and denied it soon after realizing the bluff didn't work.

mike_hearn 1y ago
Where do you get that EU is their most profitable market? When I worked for big tech the US was always the most profitable market, usually followed by the UK. Albeit that was a long time ago. But the EU has economically declined since so I doubt things changed much.
- general1726 1y ago
  I.e. for Apple EU is 25% of revenue. Try to pull out from there, and shareholders will crucify whole Apple leadership.
  - mike_hearn 1y ago
    If they did it unilaterally yes. If they did it at the same time as other companies due to US law, then probably not. More to the point, how many people in the EU use Apple tech and would be furious if it stopped working for them?
    - general1726 1y ago
      If it stops working because unilateral action from USA, it will likely create a rally around the flag effect.
    - realusername 1y ago
      Apple went as far as giving the keys to their servers to the Chinese government, that gives a clue on how valuable those top markets are.
- disgruntledphd2 1y ago
  > When I worked for big tech the US was always the most profitable market, usually followed by the UK. Albeit that was a long time ago. But the EU has economically declined since so I doubt things changed much. Again, I've been away from FAANG for a while, but the EU (note that this is 27 countries) was super, super profitable. From an ads perspective, you made money from selling to a bunch of relatively rich consumers (the EU) AND (this is more important), lots of EU companies spent loads of money on US advertisers. This is what pushes up prices and thus revenue in the EU. Yes, the US consumer does spend a lot of money, but their super high revenue from tech is more a function (rather like their equity markets) of lots and lots of foreign money coming in. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to think about what happens to these markets if/when the Europeans stop spending as much money in the US market.

mike_hearn 1y ago

Where do you get that EU is their most profitable market? When I worked for big tech the US was always the most profitable market, usually followed by the UK. Albeit that was a long time ago. But the EU has economically declined since so I doubt things changed much.

general1726 1y ago
I.e. for Apple EU is 25% of revenue. Try to pull out from there, and shareholders will crucify whole Apple leadership.
- mike_hearn 1y ago
  If they did it unilaterally yes. If they did it at the same time as other companies due to US law, then probably not. More to the point, how many people in the EU use Apple tech and would be furious if it stopped working for them?
  - general1726 1y ago
    If it stops working because unilateral action from USA, it will likely create a rally around the flag effect.
  - realusername 1y ago
    Apple went as far as giving the keys to their servers to the Chinese government, that gives a clue on how valuable those top markets are.
disgruntledphd2 1y ago
> When I worked for big tech the US was always the most profitable market, usually followed by the UK. Albeit that was a long time ago. But the EU has economically declined since so I doubt things changed much. Again, I've been away from FAANG for a while, but the EU (note that this is 27 countries) was super, super profitable. From an ads perspective, you made money from selling to a bunch of relatively rich consumers (the EU) AND (this is more important), lots of EU companies spent loads of money on US advertisers. This is what pushes up prices and thus revenue in the EU. Yes, the US consumer does spend a lot of money, but their super high revenue from tech is more a function (rather like their equity markets) of lots and lots of foreign money coming in. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to think about what happens to these markets if/when the Europeans stop spending as much money in the US market.