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Comment by Barrin92 | Hacker News Reader

>How far can the EU push before these companies decide it is not worth having actual businesses there?

Given that it's one of the single biggest and lucrative markets on the planet, much farther I would guess.

People are way too screamish about the threat of companies running away. Service providers aren't going to abandon hundreds of millions of high income users.

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Don't forget, most Europeans also speak English.

But tech companies don't have profits here because of their tax optimizations. So, I guess it's not difficult where they got their sauce from.

Edit: (downvotes not agreeing with the term "most")

> robinson7d mentioned 38% as second language, 13 % as first language. So => 51% (or, "most")

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Europe#Oth...

> Don't forget, most Europeans also speak English.

Just pointing out that's not true. The number is around 38% who have a working knowledge, second place is tied with German and French at 14% [1].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_Europe#Oth...

That citation is for "English as a foreign language", and if you read the end of the paragraph you see they are excluding UK and Ireland.

English as a first language accounts for 13%, which when added to the 38% leaves you with 51% (or, "most")

http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/archives/e... (Cited at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Unio...)

All those who you get in contact with then ;)

Those numbers also don't have a correct representation of English speaking business owners and English speakers ( first language). Since your numbers mention "English as foreign language".

Same wiki :

The language is also a required subject in most European countries.[3] Thus, the percentage of English speakers is expected to rise.

> Thus, the percentage of English speakers is expected to rise.

The number of English speakers has been steadily increasing for quite a while already, at least in Germany. Mere 10 years ago speaking English was a skill which wasn't that common and thus quite a bit valued, nowadays most modern (and especially IT-centric) companies expect you to know English, it's nothing really special anymore, at this point it's rather expected.

The vast majority of Europeans do not speak English at all.

Those numbers also don't have a correct representation of English speaking business owners.

The language is also a required subject in most European countries.[3] Thus, the percentage of English speakers is expected to rise.

Added a quote from robinson7d:

> That citation is for "English as a foreign language", and if you read the end of the paragraph you see they are excluding UK and Ireland. English as a first language accounts for 13%, which when added to the 38% leaves you with 51% (or, "most")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Unio...

And it doesn't matter if they leave. There will be plenty of companies willing to take their spot.

You have Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia. If google left EU, there will be another player to fill its needs.

Perhaps not as good, but good enough.

Not as good? The only reasons I'm not using those two is because of the fact that English/western users are an afterthought/secondary concern and some privacy concerns. They are pretty good in what they offer. I find myself using Bing more than Google nowadays.

Is Baidu paying the “correct” taxes to the EU?

This, like many other arguments that attempt to downplay the role of taxes in economic incentives, attempts to turn a continuous variable of interest into a binary one.

The weaker the profit potential in the EU, the less companies will invest there. The effect of higher taxes can't be reduced to "leave or stay." Moreover, the diminished incentive to invest would also to apply to potential replacements for these companies. So, very hypothetically, if Google spends $100 in Europe and they leave when they decide investing less $50 isn't worth it, the next company taking their place will likely only want to invest $50 rather than the $100 you were already getting from Google. It's still a loss unless you want to assume both that Google's replacement would be European and protectionism is a wise economic strategy.

Capital doesn't have borders. You may have people willing to build products, but can you get the capital you need to execute if those same investors can send their money to another country and get a better return?

It doesn't matter where the money is sent if the EU starts getting court orders to block your services in the EU if you don't pay taxes for targeting EU consumers.

they are lucrative until their people run out of money for services and while there are many companies willing to step the real question is how much taxes are locals willing to pay to have the service?

any laws on the book that prevent listing all taxes embedded in a sale?

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