The European Union should develop a technology sector of its own to compete with those of China and the USA, but its fragmentation makes it harder for the continent to gather the capital and the consumers to make it possible for big tech companies to be created and thrive. We'll see in the future if there is political will to change this.
> but its fragmentation makes it harder for the continent to gather the capital and the consumers to make it possible for big tech companies to be created and thrive
Compared to what? Europe isn't as fragmented as it used to be, and that it isn't possible to create big tech companies actually sound like a benefit to me, I don't want that. I personally prefer smaller companies, even if they don't take over the world, and it's a fairly popular sentiment at least around me in south-west Europe.
> I personally prefer smaller companies, even if they don't take over the world
Me too, but Europe should be able to compete and provide alternatives to Big Tech which requires bigger scale companies to also exist. I think it's in Europe's best interest to be able to compete in this global market and become a technological leader. It's about relevancy but also potentially about European security.
Isn't it basically like saying we need to compete with ugliest totalitarian states as their cutting edge mass manipulation and torture methods give them the most efficient tools against terrorists which threaten the stability of the regime that official statistics show as 102.7% approved by its citizens?
It's about what the article says: "to counter disinformation, protect democratic integrity, preserve cultural diversity, and reclaim control from US corporate and geopolitical interests".
Compared with the United States, with Google, Amazon, Meta, etc.; and with China, with Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Ping An, etc.
Bigger companies have better economies and scale and can develop better tech…
Strangely this diversity within Europe does not seem to be a problem for companies active in armaments, cars and food supplies.
A social media platform doesn't have the same networking effect when everyone speaks different languages. If you make a social media site in country A, and get everyone to use it there, happened a lot in Europe, but it doesn't spread to neighboring countries since all users spoke a different language.
This means that only really large countries can compete here since they start out with a big userbase and its much more likely for a smaller countries population to migrate to a large app than vice versa.
Where I live it took to after 2010 until American social media was more popular than local ones.
TikTok only succeed because it came from a large country then? A country that doesn't even speak english, nor any european language. Oh, that was because the Chinese government was behind it with much money and influence says the EU.
So Nestle can only succeed because it comes from Switzland? A non-european country within the EU. ARM succeeds because it is British and outside the EU.
Lets face it, the EU cannot create a) global cloud services (aka AWS), b) global search engine (aka google), c) global social media and d) global tech infrastructure (i.e. GPU chips). Only everyone else can do those things because .... well because the EU has so many separate cultures and languages. So cooperation is impossible.
EU can build giant particle accelerators, a space agency and a bureaucracy to stifle any innovation that isn't lead by some large established european consultancy company. EU can organise a huge increase in military spending. The EU can build fences around europe to ensure refugees don't get in.
But the EU cannot build a single search engine of global note. Yeck Google is simply too good. Even DuckDuckGo has managed to become a competitor but the EU? Too hard. Too fucking hard for the EU.
Fuck I'm sick and tired of hearing the poor EU complain about technology. It's been long enough and yet the EU cannot seem to compete. Remember when it came clear that the NSA was spying on European leaders? Well what has happened since? Nothing. Nichts. Rien. Niente. Nada. Nic.
The EU is rapidly becoming a giant open-air mueseum for tourists coming from countries that can do tech.
> TikTok only succeed because it came from a large country then?
And USA is going to buy TikTok, just like they did almost every European tech company. You don't see what is happening here, do you? Bigger tech companies eat smaller ones because software is much more prone to networking effects than other industries.
> Fuck I'm sick and tired of hearing the poor EU complain about technology
You are the one complaining, I just explained why it happened like it happened.
> Lets face it, the EU cannot create d) global tech infrastructure (i.e. GPU chips).
AMSL is European, you are just wrong here, the whole worlds tech industry depends on AMSL. Europe is very strong in many industries, just not software. It is USA that can't do tech hardware, its all made in Europe and Asia now.
> AMSL is European
At least we Europeans have the tools to build chips ... unfortunately we don't use those tools.
Why is that? Because no EU country has a large enough userbase? Or is because regulation to protect our "environment"? Or did someone forget to click "yes accept all cookies" GDPR banner?
> Europe is very strong in many industries,
Regulations being an up & coming one.
Just look what's happening to the food industry in the US thanks to regulations.
When a loaded guy in the US dies sooner than the low class in Spain, something it's really wrong with your nutrition, healthcare and tons of troubles to be able to walk to a nearby store.
European here. You know nil about Europe. Europe has been using English as the de facto language in tech/science since decades. Sorry if I burst your American bubble.