Dear Mr. Legrain,



I think you are painting a one sided picture. While I don't doubt that some of your concerns have a degree of validity, Google has a market share of 95% in Germany. If that is not a monopoly, I don't know what is.

True, Google's market dominating position is not due to lack of alternatives, as there are a number of search engines out there. Google has achieved that success because it provides an excellent service and users prefer it. But that doesn't change the fact that the market is being dominated by Google, and that raises a number of legitimate concerns.



Couple that with the recent revelations of US Internet companies feeding all sorts of data to the NSA, and you have a whole new degree of concerns.



With disruptive start-ups like Uber, you have the problem that there are no laws in place at the moment that regulate that kind of service. And far from caring, Uber simply pushes ahead, most of the time ignoring and flat-out breaking local laws. You can be all indignant about it and call it 'protectionism', but fact is that public and private transportation services are heavily regulated in Germany, and if you want to be a player you have to play by the rules and follow the law. We are not in the wild west.



As I said, I am sure that some of your points have their validity, but your entire article reads very one-dimensional and is catering too much to the widespread American perception of European 'jealousy' towards the success of the US information industry. There are valid grounds for European concerns towards the market dominating, or market disrupting positions of some Internet companies, be they American or otherwise. The truth is almost certainly somewhere in-between.