There are several factors, but let's not forget that some of these companies have gotten so productive with some shady practices.
Would Facebook have become the Facebook we all know and love today if it had started in Europe? Probably not, because local legislators as well as the public would have said "whoa, we're not doing THAT!" I mean, Belgium outright banned Facebook from collecting data a few years ago, and there are other cases as well.
Companies such as Intel and Microsoft have been repeatedly fined, and it's not hard to see how they would have ben prevented getting in such a position in the first place if they had been started in Europe.
Now, according to some viewpoints profit and size is everything; I've seen this expressed on HN a few times with comments such as "all tech giants are American, Europe is shit", but what this misses is the question if we're really better off with all these tech giants in the first place, because to be honest I'm not so sure that we are. I think quite a few Europeans would see the existence of these companies as a failure of the American system, rather than a success.
So part of the reason is that the US allows for some business practices that would be very difficult (or outright illegal) if a company would be EU-based.
Would Facebook have become the Facebook we all know and love today if it had started in Europe? Probably not, because local legislators as well as the public would have said "whoa, we're not doing THAT!" I mean, Belgium outright banned Facebook from collecting data a few years ago, and there are other cases as well.
Companies such as Intel and Microsoft have been repeatedly fined, and it's not hard to see how they would have ben prevented getting in such a position in the first place if they had been started in Europe.
Now, according to some viewpoints profit and size is everything; I've seen this expressed on HN a few times with comments such as "all tech giants are American, Europe is shit", but what this misses is the question if we're really better off with all these tech giants in the first place, because to be honest I'm not so sure that we are. I think quite a few Europeans would see the existence of these companies as a failure of the American system, rather than a success.
So part of the reason is that the US allows for some business practices that would be very difficult (or outright illegal) if a company would be EU-based.