Does the EU stifle tech innovation?

Let’s examine Google.

70% of Google’s Revenue comes from ads on Google and ads sold through Google’s platform.

That revenue funds Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Slides, Forms, Google Calendar, Google Messaging Platforms such as Hangouts, Google Translate, Google Photos, and a host of other Google services.

This is a pretty good business model. The more time that people spend on Google services means Google can collect more information. And, chances are, if people spend more time on Google services, they will use Google Search over the competition meaning they will see more ads from Google. It is a beautiful symbiotic relationship.

When GDPR came around, Google had a huge number of customers. When they updated their privacy policy, people just accepted it. Google had already become a necessity for users. Google collected the same amount of data as pre-GDPR.

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Let’s say Google formed in 2016. They have no customers. When they try to collect data, they fail. GDPR pushes them down and they cannot collect the information required to sustain operations. Of course, they will still profit as DuckDuckGo does but their profits could not sustain even Gmail let alone Google Drive, Hangouts, Google Translate, etc.

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That means:

• If Google is big, they can collect any information they want.
• If Google is small, they cannot collect the same amount of information.

Now, replace “Google” with any company.

Any startup right now has a harder time forming a free ad-supported business model than they did 10 years ago. Right now, the EU is helping big companies like Google and Facebook where they have full control of their users. Small companies cannot collect the required information for profitability and die off.

99% of the time, innovation comes from startups. That innovation is usually copied by a giant but it originates with startups. By making it harder for ad-supported business models to survive, the EU is stifling innovation worldwide.