[rehtona]

The US and China both have the "unfair" advantage of a big homogenous market. I think that's the main reason you don't see a Microsoft, Google or Facebook in Europe. For example Spotify, headquartered in Stockholm, initially had a domestic market of 9 million people. Spotify is growing fast, but again, not enough engineers would move to Stockholm to sustain a Google. There's a language and culture barrier between EU countries that just don't exist in the US.

[sbt]

Yes. I happen to think Europe actually has somewhat better human capital than the US, though the US has a clear institutional advantage (more homogeneous market, different politics, etc.) which trumps everything else.

I was once a part of a medium sized European start-up that was bought by a large US company. Even though everyone got rich off the acquisition, we came to view this as a failure. If we didn't agree to be bought, we knew we would be out spent/marketed by the much larger (though much more clumsy) US company.

At the end of the day, the Europeans will not consign themselves to US dominance (and the Chinese certainly won't). The EU moves slowly, but there are clear signs the past few years that it is moving to curb US tech multinationals in order to nurture domestic alternatives. While I support free trade in principle, I think this is a good development for Europe.

[kryptiskt]

Sure, the EU could get all huffy, but starting a trade war over that when they are a huge net exporter to the US would be extremely stupid. Maybe even too stupid for them.