BRUSSELS—The European Union should regulate Internet platforms in a way that allows a new generation of European operators to overtake the dominant U.S. players, the bloc’s digital czar said, in an unusually blunt assessment of the risks that U.S. Web giants are viewed as posing to the continent’s industrial heartland.
If you have trouble spotting the irony, read the comments:
...here go the clowns, er, the EU regulators again. if you can't compete, then regulate, subsidize and then raise all kinds of protectionist barriers. That might have worked for Airbus, but the digital world has low barriers to entry and is fast moving. Add to it worker protection regulations, limit foreign workers and well...no wonder Herr Oettinger is sounding so frustrated.
... The EU has never stopped to seriously consider why their economic system fails to promote the innovation that leads to Google, Facebook, and Apple. Yet, their very response shows why they fail: their answer is more government regulation and market manipulation. I predict that in 10 years the EU will STILL be lagging since they're focused on today's technology and not innovating for tomorrow.
.... Step 1: Tie legs together before entering race against everyone else.
Step 2: Insist that everyone ahead of you tie their legs together until you catch up.
Step 3: ?
Imagine these guys running the Olympics.
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ReplyDeleteCan more regulation help European companies?
ReplyDeletePer the article ‘How can Europe embrace a digital future?’, the writer views digital technologies and digitally delivered services as essential for the European countries in order to create growth, be competitive with other world leaders, and to deliver prosperity to citizen with higher expectations. Through research, improving productivity, and by creating new markets with new technological applications; Mr. Schwab states that Europe will speed up its position as a high quality producer of goods and services, and push forward to be a leader in innovation.
Competitiveness, lack of using digital technologies, high level of unemployment are some factors that European economies must overcome. Training people across all generations to have digital skills, understand programming languages and coding principles; create organizational structures that will generate jobs in digital technologies, innovate and create growth.
Per Mr. Schwab, Europeans need a new mindset to incorporate digital technologies in their daily activities. Research by the European Commission’s Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan shows that when small and medium size enterprises use digital technologies they tend to grow two to three times faster. He comments: “This vision of Europe’s digital future will not become a reality without global leaders from all sectors being open to the possibilities that the digital economy brings.” “I see Europe’s digital future as competitive, innovative, inclusive and sustainable. With the right attitude, investments and policy action today, this future can be realized. We are already on the journey towards that future, and I am very much enjoying being part of it.”
Schwab, Klaus {Oct 7 2014} How can Europe embrace a digital future?, https://agenda.weforum.org/2014/10/embracing-digital-era-ensure-europes-competitiveness/
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ReplyDeleteEU regulators see Google as a monopoly, and see Facebook as excessive in collecting personal information data with the purpose of ad targeting, which Europeans are ferociously against. If I were to lean towards European culture that dislikes intrusion of companies in personal lives, I would say that identity theft and unwanted even “abusive” advertisement are direct results of lack of overseeing and regulations over these two internet giants. According to statistics, more than 25 % of European internet users systematically block advertisement, and their dissatisfaction with ad-targeting grew over years while both Google and Facebook successfully overcame ad blocking and filters. “Google is stealing content from other popular sites and using it to boost their own search results: when those sites complained, Google supposedly threatened to drop them from the search engine results entirely” (Maupin, 2015).
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Wall Street Journal, the European Union has anti-trust concerns regarding the operations of Google and Facebook. “The Wall Street Journal, citing an internal document prepared by senior officials for EU Digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger” (Matthew, 2015), these new regulations "could include a ban on unfair practices such as price-parity clauses and a requirement that platform operators don't discriminate between their own services and those of third parties” (Matthew, 2015).
References: Mathew, J. 2015. Europe considers more powerful regulator to control Google and Facebook. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.co.uk
Maupin, M. 2015. Shouldn’t the US treat Google and Facebook the way Europe does? Retrieved from http://tenscores.com/daily
It’s interesting to see that the European governments want to implement more barriers of entry into an industry that they clearly have a lacking presence in. As the topic mentions, the internet is a fast pace moving industry. With the European Union’s attempt to create a leveled playing field, they also in my opinion wasted resources trying to do so. This left the doors wide open for the U.S. to step in and be somewhat the leading champion of various aspects in the internet industry (ie: Google and Facebook).
ReplyDeleteWhen looking into this topic further, a question has come up as to why the EU feels the need to regulate the internet. Is it really related to offering their customers lower prices? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial if the EU concentrated their internet focus towards ensuring transparency and the consumers’ rights to information? “The problem with the European unbundling regulation is that it pitted short-term consumer benefits, such as low prices, against the long-run benefits from capital investment and innovation” (Thelle, M. & Basalisco, B., 2013). We can tie this line of thinking to a more recent topic also address by Luke Froeb in his post titled “What can the Rolling Stones teach you about Economics?” It seems that the EU is considering only the short-term, immediate implications of internet regulation. By not taking their thoughts and efforts one step further, they are hindering the European nations chances of becoming a leader in the next “big thing” when it comes to internet developments.
Thelle, M. & Basalisco, B. (August 18, 2013). “Europe's Internet Handcuffs Show U.S. How Not to Regulate”. Retrieved from: http://www.rollcall.com/news/europes_internet_handcuffs_show_us_how_not_to_regulate_commentary-227090-1.html
Regulation can never be harmful for anyone and it’s great comfort levels for workers to know that certain company is legitimate. Right now work in Forex trading with a regulated broker like OctaFX, it helps me enough to guide me so much while they are a true ECN broker, so I can completely trust and work without any stress or tension, so that brings very good results for me that too consistently and I can overcome all the facilities of this giant business!
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