I bet you don’t dare

This week I had to laugh heartily, because little Meta must have had a fit of rage, threw herself on the floor and threatened to break her friendship with stupid Europe and take her comrades Facebook, Instagram and Co. with her right away. Is it even more pretentious? And honestly, would it be so bad if it actually came to that? We’ll clarify in the current weekend column.

Short summary: Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly Facebook Inc., once again threatened to turn its back on Europe, after all these “stupid” EU regulations and laws make their own business concept more difficult or even prevent it entirely. What was the idea again? Oh yes, a lot of personalized advertising smashes, provided that data protection is not taken too seriously. Well, the EU and thus also Germany of course sees this a little differently and calls on Meta to also comply with the applicable laws.

As early as September 2020, there was a threat of withdrawing from Europe, now there was another such cryptic threatening gesture, only to row back again shortly afterwards. In the end it was just for fun and not meant first. One must and only wanted to point out “risks”.

When Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp disappear from Germany and Europe

But would it really be that bad if Facebook, Instagram and possibly even WhatsApp disappeared from the local market with Meta in the end and limited to the rest of the world? In my opinion, none of the three aspirants has a real unique selling proposition, which would make the solutions irreplaceable.

Facebook becomes Meta, which means:

Ultimately, the gaps would be closed again sooner or later in Europe and Germany. Both international and national companies would recognize the opportunity and present adequate replacement solutions. Facebook copies with StudiVZ and MeinVZ already existed in this country. There could be a revival or Google and Apple could try their luck again with a social network and would have better chances due to the renewed location advantage.

and alternatives are already queuing for WhatsApp… Signal, Threema, Telegram. If Apple then opens up Android with iMessage, WhatsApp would quickly be forgotten.

Of course, it would likely at least when it comes to the “Facebook replacement”, maybe even come back to isolated solutions, social networks that are at best limited to Europe and are not spread all over the world. However, something like this already exists, albeit for different reasons. A look at China proves that it can also be done without Facebook. Facebook is not allowed to appear here, but every child knows Weibo.

Meta knows what’s at stake

Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp… none of them are irreplaceable and unique. If Meta actually withdraws from Europe, then company boss Mark Elliot Zuckerberg will only harm himself in the end. Or to put it simply: skillfully fucked in the knee! Of course you know all this. That’s why it’s clear to me, Meta doesn’t dare anyway. If so, it would be the end of Facebook in general. Only the US market would not be able to support the company in its current size. The last price crash would be nothing compared to what was to come.