Hacker News Reader

Comment by anonyfox | Hacker News Reader

So they give up the largest market in the world (European countries combined) to their competitors right from the start. Smart move :-)

View on HN

Europe stopped being the largest market a few years ago.

I’m 2021, the eu gdp was US$17.2T [0]. I think that makes them #3 after China at $17.7[1] and the US at $23.2 [2].

So it’s not that odd that Google and others would prioritize other, larger markets above EU. But still seems pretty bone headed of google to not be capable of including such massive populations and markets at launch. Perhaps they could have used some of those 13k fired workers on this launch.

[0] https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/EUU/european-union/gdp... [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=china+gdp [2] https://www.google.com/search?q=us+gdp

GDP is not market.

EU's consumer market is bigger than China and India combined. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_consumer_marke...

I see the tiny little insignificant UK is actually 20% of the whole EU, who boast of having a 440 million population.

My intuition is that it's also quit a fragmented market with many different languages, cultures and local regulations.

Thanks, good point. So the EU really isn’t the biggest market then. I’m surprised it’s half the size of the US.

But it explains why products don’t target Europe as much as while it’s big, it is clearly simple why a company would target the US with its single language and more uniform culture than Europe with all its diverse languages and cultures.

I would suggest that EU should produce it's own AI company to compete at that scale in their own market but we all know that's not going to happen. Just get angry they can't access the American companies technology anymore.

Remember Quaero? [0] Back when Europe (really just France and Germany) tried to make their own google competitor to prevent English language dominance? They spent at least $99M and really did nothing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaero

No, they just release it later. According to Google, they want more localization before they release it in the not yet supported countries. Which might be culture, but could also mean abiding by laws and regulations.

EU ceased to be the largest market when the UK left

now it's number 3 or 4 (depending how you define market)

It's still number 2, we're talking about a consumer market, not a market.

both China and the US are both significantly bigger since Brexit

Depends how you count. China is significantly bigger if you use the methodology of a consumer market as "having people who spend more than $11 a day" or if you use PPP. If you use "Household final consumption expenditure" then the EU is larger.

To chose the relevant definition of a "consumer market", usually what matters is where is the product made, the impact of distribution cost in the market and where are the profits going? For Alphabet, HFCE is the most relevant metric, because they're American and their product is software.

But sure, use a political definition that doesn't work for software.

> Depends how you count.

the metric the EU itself used to describe itself as the world's largest economy

> But sure, use a political definition

nominal GDP, again, the metric the EU used itself

since the UK left the EU's nominal GDP is smaller than the US and China

> the metric the EU itself used to describe itself as the world's largest economy

I'm sorry but they don't describe themselves that way. When they did it was GPD/capita: https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-cou...

Anyway you completely evaded the topic. We're talking about "consumer markets".

So having largest "internal" market the EU still lacks in developing their own products. Smart move :-)

Because the EU isn't really a market (at least for consumer goods), it's dozens of markets. Despite no tariffs and (very) roughly aligned regulations, you've still got dozens of languages, norms, expectations, and income levels. Something developed and tested in Massachusetts will sell better in Wyoming than something developed and tested in Bulgaria will in Sweden.

Funnily enough, despite being part of the EU for decades and still having a comprehensive trade agreement with them, the UK's success in tech is probably more to do with being culturally closer to North America.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com