[niihau_island]

Maybe it's because Silicon Valley occurred first, and then oppressed most of Europe's "native" companies?

It seems that there are some massive sources of wealth for tech companies, such as search, social networks, and e-commerce companies. In Europe, these have all been supplanted by Google, Facebook, and Amazon respectively.

In China, on the other hand, these companies were free to grow and establish their own nexuses of tech talent. As a result, China is the closest to having the Silicon Valley of <x>.

Perhaps Europe should take a page from China's (and the US now, I suppose) playbook?

[boc]

Don't mistake government-sponsored protectionism and corporate espionage for innovation. I don't think Europe can copy China's playbook without also banning all American tech from their economy.

[tonyedgecombe]

I expect you will see barriers come up over time that make it more difficult for American tech companies in Europe. It makes no sense for the EU to outsource such a valuable part of the economy.

[boc]

Again, protectionism is a dangerous road. If the EU blocked American tech companies, the US would retaliate in kind. While it's possible that Europe could eventually become self-sustaining if given a friendly environment to grow indigenous tech companies, losing access to every major OS overnight (as just a small example of the potential retaliation) would be a pretty devastating experience for Europe. You can't replace Microsoft, Apple, and Google overnight.

[tonyedgecombe]

It already exists, there are tariffs for American vehicles entering Europe and the US for instance.

>losing access to every major OS overnight

That wouldn't really be in America's interest would it?

[emteycz]

I don't think we would lose access to the Finnish operating system Linux, also

[sgerenser]

I’m assuming this is a joke but Linus Torvalds is a US citizen, and the Linux Foundation is based in the US.