That's the big difference in the EU when you are a start-up and want to go from the $10-50M range to $500M+: in the US and China, you have one big market with a shared language and one rule of law. In Europe? The second you want to expand to a market bigger than 50M people you have to adapt to different languages, cultures and laws.
If you have not baked it in at the start that can be a huge roadblock. And if you have baked it in at the start you may have missed your chance due to the delay you incurred. Then you're just a target to be eaten by a US or Chinese company with a big war chest earned in their own market.
That's why part of the EU rules is about trying to unify its member countries laws. Yes GDPR can seem like a protectionist framework from outside, but the main goal was to make all country in the EU have one shared legal system to handle personal data. So sharing them becomes easier inside the EU. We can expect more of this kind of laws to be written but they'll always be too late.