• cyd@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    It’s an interesting subject. If not for Beijing’s heavy hand, could Chinese internet companies have flourished much more and become international tech giants? Maybe, but there is one obvious counterpoint: where are the European tech giants? In an open playing field, it looks like American tech giants are pretty good at buying out or simply crushing any nascent competitors. If the Chinese did not have their censorship or great firewall, maybe the situation would have been like Europe, where the government tries to impose some rules, but doesn’t really have much traction, and everyone just ends up using Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc.

    • Evotech@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      You can’t just do whatever the fuck you want if you have enough money in Europe.

      You can’t just collect data or operate in gray areas, have underpaid workers without unions and tell everyone to fuck off.

      You can’t just make a monopoly by buying everyone else without questions.

      So it’s not as easy to grow big

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        OP also completely neglects the geopolitical and demographic history that lead to the rise of US tech companies, and the continuous brain drain from elsewhere to the US.

        After WW2 Europe and Asia were destroyed. It took decades to rebuild. The benefit of this to America can’t be overstated. A significant proportion of the worlds scientific community emigrated throughout the 20th Century because of this. US tech companies had the wealthiest capitalists/investors, and the most skilled labor pool. America also had a much higher wealth inequality, so all companies that came after benefited enormously from a comparatively wealthier and experienced skilled labor pool. Then add the neoliberal low tax, low minimum wage, and undocumented slave labor funneling money to all these companies.

        Capital — especially preexisting capital — is the greatest determinator for success. The EU is not doing it wrong. The US is! It’s a corporate dictatorship, now descending into totalitarian fascist dictatorship.