[PhDuck]

How does it "make sense"? Are you implying that the local company will behave more ethically? Baidu is also a mega corporation, that will surely allow the government access to your data at a whim. Right now, it is merely stifling competition leaving the users without choice.

[gonvaled]

It will for sure comply with local tax rules, unless it is doing something illegal.

As it stands, Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, ... do not pay adequate tax rates in the EU. If we had local companies, we would not lose billions in tax revenues thanks to tax loopholes created by the US government, to benefit US corporations.

Regarding data management: will that be any worse compared to what the big five are doing? From the cuntry's point of view (and its citizens, one would assume), is it better that your government is spying or you, or that foreign corporations / governments are spying on you?

Put another way: are you more worried (as US citizen I assume) that the NSA / FBI are spying on you, or that the russians / chinese are spying on you?

[Karunamon]

At the risk of going off into the political weeds: define "adequate". The proper tax rate for a company to pay is, by definition, the amount they are required to by law. No more, no less.

[gonvaled]

We have legal framework for taxes. Corporations work around it by creating massive costs by paying phoney IP bills to their mother companies. The EU is trying to end these practices, but it is taking time.

If the companies were local, it would be much easier. Said another way, none of the big local companies in the EU are using this kind of setups.

[jeffbax]

To the Chinese government that's a feature, not a bug. This will be very interesting to watch whether Google's able to overcome severe hometown advantage in a way most companies aren't with the possible exception of Apple and maybe Microsoft?