[deecewan]

And then also say goodbye to any chance of European expansion, ever.

That's a big risk, given the size of Europe and the fact that it the US is your current target demographic, it's not a far stretch to think Europe might be, too.

[jlarocco]

> And then also say goodbye to any chance of European expansion, ever.

Blocking the EU effectively means the same thing, though, because it's announcing to everybody that you're ignoring that market and leaving the door open for companies who can copy your business model but are willing to respect user's privacy. Not to mention the reputation damage from snubbing their privacy laws. The door's still technically open, but it's going to be much more difficult.

I also wonder if this kind of announcement will backfire a bit for these companies. When I see a "We're dropping the EU over GDPR," article, I don't think about how bad the GDPR must be, but instead I wonder what shady activities these companies are doing that makes them unable to comply, and that makes me avoid them.

The general public are pretty clueless on these things (look at the surprise around Facebook lately), but I do feel it'll cost them some users.

[taysic]

I don't think big companies will back out of the EU at all. In fact, they now have a big more of a competitive advantage because they have the money and time needed to get GDPR right over a smaller company. And transparency about how they use data will isolate less users, now that they already built their name. I think it will affect smaller companies more whose new innovative product will be tested on the US market first before demand is recognized and then adapted to the EU. Of course it really depends on the regulatory reach of this law.