European companies are betting increasingly emphatically on their own digital solutions, driven by reluctance to American tech giants. Since Donald Trump's inauguration, interest in Europe-centric e-mail, messaging services and search engines has surged, according to figures from market analysis specialist Similarweb. Disappointing transatlantic security cooperation and trade conflicts with the U.S. have fueled distrust among organizations and citizens.
At a trade show in Berlin, the charity Topio now helps countless smartphone users remove "American influences" every day. Founder Michael Wirths notices that his audience is increasingly shifting from tech-sharing organizations from privacy-conscious nerds to politically engaged citizens. "Where before people were primarily looking for better data management, now they are primarily looking to distance themselves from the geopolitical jousting," Wirths said, while colleagues install a Google-less Android variant.
Success numbers include Ecosia and ProtonMail. Ecosia, which puts its profits into reforestation, saw EU searches grow by 27 %; yet, with a market share of around 1 %, it remains a small player versus Google, which still received 10.3 billion visits in February. Meanwhile, ProtonMail reports an increase of nearly 12 % in European usage, while the global email giants are losing ground.
Calls for "digital sovereignty" are growing louder in Brussels. Policymakers fear that dependence on U.S. infrastructure from cloud platforms to content delivery networks makes the euro zone economically and security vulnerable. The new German coalition therefore strongly advocates open source solutions and its own data centers, and regional governments, such as in Schleswig-Holstein, are now requiring all their IT to run on open source software.
Still, experts warn that a complete break with Silicon Valley is unfeasible. "Everyone uses push notifications, cloud services or network protocols that are largely American-owned," said Bill Budington of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Even European alternatives like Qwant and Ecosia rely in part on Google indexes and cloud storage at the companies they would like to avoid.
Although initiatives such as Mastodon and Signal temporarily benefit from the sentiment, the dominant market structure hardly changes. A growing Reddit group "BuyFromEU" illustrates consumers' urge to boycott foreign services, but without robust regulation, it remains difficult for European vendors to capture a substantial share of the tech market. As digital law specialist Robin Berjon aptly observes, "Self-organization is not enough; only coercive frameworks can truly rein in Silicon Valley."
