I'm not onboard with the idea that Silicon Valley holds a monopoly on technical innovation. Getting people to click on ads on smartphones doesn't capture the entire scope of technology. Europe's economy is roughly as large as that of the United States. Many world-leading companies from the car industry, to chemicals, to biotech reside in Europe.
The US holds one dominating advantage in one subset of technology. Consumer-facing internet tech. While a lot of people employed in this field commentate on this website, it's a marginal part of the tech industry, and it's not worth sacrificing privacy for, Europe does not need Silicon Valley to produce high-value products.
And if adtech is supposed to be the definition of the future, rather than genomics, complex manufacturing and the life sciences than I'm okay with us skipping that part. There are business models that don't rely on sacrificing the attention and privacy of consumers.
The US holds one dominating advantage in one subset of technology. Consumer-facing internet tech. While a lot of people employed in this field commentate on this website, it's a marginal part of the tech industry, and it's not worth sacrificing privacy for, Europe does not need Silicon Valley to produce high-value products.
And if adtech is supposed to be the definition of the future, rather than genomics, complex manufacturing and the life sciences than I'm okay with us skipping that part. There are business models that don't rely on sacrificing the attention and privacy of consumers.