STOCKHOLM — What would the online world look like if Amazon didn't exist?

That may sound like an odd question to ask from the Swedish capital, where by almost every metric, the locals are some of the most tech-savvy in the world.

Yet while people here can boast the likes of Spotify as homegrown champions — and can easily navigate their smartphones on super-fast mobile networks — there's one basic ingredient to living online that Sweden still lacks.

They don't have access to Amazon.

Sure, locals can browse, and buy, the tech giant's offerings through its international stores (Amazon's German website gets a lot of traffic locally, according to industry analysts).

In total, Swedes spent roughly €8.7 billion online last year, often through their smartphones, the most of any Nordic country.

But where people in London and Los Angeles can readily tap into the U.S. company's never-ending — and ever-growing — stable of digital goods and services, Swedes are unable to quickly, and easily, take advantage of Amazon's same-day delivery and local access to the company's global storehouse.

This quirk, though, isn't just about Swedes' inability to sign up to Amazon Prime.

Policymakers from Brussels to Washington and beyond are increasingly skeptical about a small group of almost universally American tech companies dominating the digital landscape.

With these firms' power (both financially and socially) on the rise, lawmakers now openly question if their wings need to be clipped, so that smaller players — often with fewer resources to compete — can offer consumers an alternative to the so-called GAFA (that's Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.)

Have we hit a turning point where some of Silicon Valley's best and brightest have become too big, hampering innovation and throttling startups eager to expand globally? Or do the economies of scale that come with such a worldwide footprint allow the largest tech companies to provide digital services that just would not be possible without their ability to span the globe?

"In most industries, we have seen a few large firms account for an increasing share of the market," said Jason Furman, a former senior economic adviser to Barack Obama who was recently appointed by the British government to review competition in the online world. "In technology, the network effects create barriers to entry. To do nothing risks a slowdown in innovation and an increase in inequality."

* * *

And that's where Amazon's absence from Sweden comes in. It offers a glimpse of an alternative reality, one that's not fully dominated by West Coast tech firms.

Amazon so far has not opened a website for the Swedish market. A company spokesman declined to comment on whether it would soon enter the country, though its small population (less than the state of Pennsylvania) likely makes the land of Ikea less of a priority than bigger markets.

Without the e-commerce giant operating locally (it recently expanded its cloud computing services, but not its retail offerings, to the Nordic country), a litany of domestic competitors have sprouted up.

These would-be Amazons offer Sweden's 10 million citizens much of the same online goods and services for which many people in other countries routinely, and almost automatically, turn to the U.S firm — one whose market value of just under $1 trillion is almost double that of Sweden's annual gross domestic product.

Looking to buy a book? Try Adlibris. Want some toiletries? Check out Apotea.

Few, if any, Swedish competitors offer anything like the next-day delivery that has become the norm for most Amazon Prime subscribers.

In total, Swedes spent roughly €8.7 billion online last year, often through their smartphones, the most of any Nordic country, according to statistics from the country's postal service.

Many of the local e-commerce players struggle to turn massive profits (operating margins, or the amount of profit that firms make after expenses, mostly hover around 1 or 2 percent). But they can rely on sophisticated online payment services unavailable in other tech-friendly Western countries — and average online spending of more than €200 per transaction — that removes many of the headaches often hampering people's willingness to buy online.

"We have become the basic infrastructure here in Sweden," said Anna-Lena Wretman, chief executive of Swish, a mobile payments service started by a consortium of local banks that is now used by roughly two-thirds of Sweden's population. "E-commerce retailers needed something else, and what we can offer through mobile is easier."

***

Before we hail Sweden as the bastion of digital competition, it's worth remembering there are also downsides to an online world devoid of the world's largest e-commerce player.

Sure, Swedes can (patriotically) turn to local firms to meet their online shopping needs. And there's a thriving domestic e-commerce sector — offering everything from online payments to door-to-door delivery — that might not exist if Amazon suddenly showed up to swallow the market.

But there's also regular grumbling, even by those well served in major metropolitan areas like Stockholm or Gothenburg, that the local online retailers just aren't as good as what is on offer through Amazon's global empire.

"Amazon represents a real threat, but it's been a threat for so long," said Nicklas Storåkers, chief executive of PriceRunner, a local comparison shopping site.

It's not just about the company's digital services like its fledging movie and television programming.

Few, if any, Swedish competitors offer anything like the next-day (and, increasingly, same-day) delivery that has become the norm for most Amazon Prime subscribers — which, granted, is particularly difficult for a country spanning 1,500 kilometers from top to bottom, and whose sparsely populated north makes deliveries unprofitable.

Others bemoan the lack of choice, and high prices, available from domestic e-commerce firms.

It's no surprise, then, that Amazon's stable of international sites (with access to the company's global supply chain and almost limitless resources) are some of the most visited online stores anywhere in Sweden, according to statistics from CupoNation, an online savings firm.

"I always check what I can get on Amazon before buying," said Jonas Bengtsson, a Swedish lawyer who was browsing for kids' toys at a store recently opened in central Stockholm by Adlibris, the local online seller. "I wish they would come to Sweden. It would make my life significantly easier than having to use the sites that we have here."

* * *

That's the difficult choice when balancing the need to foster competition online and the reality of Big Tech offering easy access to much of the digital world's online fruits.

Yes, a more diverse online ecosystem — and lawmaking to allow smaller firms to compete fairly — helps to promote greater innovation and support a broader array of digital options, often from startups whose goods and services are better than those offered by larger competitors.

But for consumers (and that goes for many of the Swedes who eagerly clamor for Amazon's arrival), this digital Darwinism can be quickly cast aside when given the chance to have almost everything they need provided under one (digital) roof.

Will this winner-takes-all attitude eventually make the internet economy less dynamic as people's online habits coalesce around a handful of tech giants whose reach is seemingly limitless? Probably.

But for the average person, either in Stockholm or San Francisco, such fears are not (yet) a high priority.

Amazon's absence from Sweden certainly has helped domestic competitors grow and prosper in ways that would likely not have been possible if the West Coast giant had entered the fray. And some locals (and Amazon's long list of critics) cheer such digital diversity, highlighting what could be possible if the e-commerce giant and its peers did not run roughshod over smaller rivals.

For others here and elsewhere, though, such complex issues about online fairness are easily overshadowed by the basic, and somewhat uncomfortable, fact that many just prefer to rely on a few large tech firms — some of which, to be fair, have taken some serious reputational knocks recently.

If Amazon showed up in Stockholm, there would be those who would fear for how local players can compete.

Yet for the vast majority, the only question would be: Where do I sign up?

Mark Scott is chief technology correspondent at POLITICO.

Digital Politics is a column about the global intersection of technology and the world of politics.