The EU represents close to 50% of potential/projected revenue to Google in the next 10 years, is my guess. That's what I meant when I wrote "loads of leverage".
Re:The world needs more search engines
by root_axis on Sunday December 01, 2019 @12:24PM
(#21676552)
It's not that simple. In a scenario where google was shut out of the EU you'd have a lot of pissed off citizens, and google knows this.
I don't think it's in the basic values of the European Union to suddenly block Google. We're talking increasing taxation, over a 5-20 year period, that kind of thing. We're not North Korea or the PRC.
Or in some other other gradual way. Anyway: it's not a binary over-night thing based on a whim of some dictator.
Either way, I fully trust the competency of the people running these things; they have proven themselves in the past. I'm writing that as a Swedish citizen who is a little bit skeptic about whole the EU thing. This part though - I trust these EU bureaucrats. My impression is that there's a team of very sharp people working on this.
I'm unsure if that continues to be true if the EU siphons money off of them to build a direct competitor.