

Googlephobia – Germany’s digital future - frrp
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21615602-germanys-opposition-american-technology-firms-short-sighted-and-self-defeating-googlephobia

======
junto
Funny article. Seemed like it was blaming the Germans risk adverse business
culture for the state investigation of potential monopolistic business
practices by Google and the flagrant flouting of transport laws by Uber?

Seems to me like those kind of things are an important part of the state's
responsibility to protect its citizens.

The fact that Germans do need to start investing in their digital startups
seems to be unrelated to me, or have I completely missed the point?

I'm happy to step into a taxi that I know is correctly licensed and insured.

I'm happy that Google's absolute monopoly is being questioned, in exactly the
same way that Microsoft's monopoly was questioned 10 years ago in the browser
wars and the EU.

I would like to see more German investors take fliers on risky startups, and
not just the kind of startups that help us to share pictures and statuses
about what we ate for lunch.

As a final note I'd like to add that I'm not anti-US companies, or pro-German
ones, but this article did seem to be grasping at straws.

