The arrows are coming at American tech companies from many directions.
The latest is from China. As Paul Mozur reports, the Chinese government is asking some American technology companies “to directly pledge their commitment to contentious policies that could require them to turn user data and intellectual property over to the government.”
The move by the Chinese is not all that surprising. The country has been making related demands for a while now. But what is so striking is how commonplace such tough talk — and tough action — is when it comes to how foreign governments are now handling the world’s largest tech companies.
As we wrote about the other day, Europeans, Russians and others are taking a tough stand against what they say are anti-competitive practices by Google. Many countries are pushing back against Uber, the fast-growing ride-hailing service. Others are demanding that American tech companies significantly alter the way they handle data in order to operate in a country.
Of course, the American government has its own beefs with Apple and other tech companies, particularly when it comes to encrypted messages.
So far, at least, the antagonism does not seem to be keeping American companies from pursuing business abroad — and certainly not in the United States. Maybe damage to the bottom line will remain minimal.
On Wednesday, Lyft announced a somewhat novel partnership with Didi Kuaidi, China’s pre-eminent ride-hailing company, that will allow Lyft to operate in China and Didi Kuaidi to operate in the United States.
An upside of the deal, it appears, is a chance to avoid some of the headaches with foreign governments that have become so common. In this day and age, that can be a significant competitive advantage.