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Comment by tsimionescu | Hacker News Reader

The opposite is actually true, most likely the lack of regulation is why we don't have more European hardware and software. Look at Russia and China - they have much more onerous regulation, and have large popular local services (VKontakte, WeeChat). I'm not suggesting in any way we should want to be like China and Russia, but I think they prove that regulation doesn't prevent local business springing up to compete with international behemoths.

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Those countries simply forbid competitors from selling in their domestic markets.

EU regulations apply equally to EU and non-EU companies, so they won’t lead to homegrown tech champions. More likely they will cement the dominance of US tech giants because they’re the ones who have the resources to follow these regulations.

Facebook was available in Russia up until the invasion of Ukraine. China doesn't directly block most such companies either, it imposes censorship and technology control requirements. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon operate in China, with Chinese subsidiaries, but they are nowhere near as dominant as they are in the rest of the world.

Not exactly true, up until 2022 Google, Meta and others operated in Russia and were competing with Yandex and VK on a more or less even playing field

>popular local services

>Vkontakte, WeeChat

Since 2008 big US tech companies have been a runaway GDP doubling success. It is laughable to compare them with VK and WeChat.

The reason we Europeans should aim to have our own big tech companies is because we are currently missing out on the greatest wealth generation in history.

> because we are currently missing out on the greatest wealth generation in history.

You mean losing billions dollars a year, for years, with no plan of becoming profitable? That's what most of "successful startups" are in the US. It's wealth redistribution for a lucky few, and gig economy for everyone else.

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