What will happen if Meta really leaves Europe?
Will this be the last summer when we can share with our followers on Facebook and Instagram how we spent our vacation? Maybe - it all depends on whether the company Meta will manage to reach an agreement with the European Union on the use of personal data, which has been disputed for years, especially in recent months.
According to the Irish Data Protection Commission, there are many security flaws in the operations of the American technology giant, with one of the biggest concerns being the storage of user data "without any specific reason". Additionally, the American so-called "Privacy Shield" does not comply with the European Data Protection Act, making the conflict of interests more than obvious.
Court battles between the Meta company and European privacy activists have been ongoing for years, but it seems that only this year has the future of the Facebook and Instagram networks on our continent been seriously questioned. Currently, the entire process is "on hold".
Ireland has again received objections to its request to regulate the processing of personal data of European users of these social networks by an American company, which may mean that Meta is just buying time.
Mark Zuckerberg has two options at his disposal: the first is to really withdraw from Europe because, as he states, Meta will not be able to provide services if they are prohibited from transferring data, and the second is for Meta to become federated, which would mean that Europeans store data on European soil while sending only crucial data to the USA. It seems that Zuckerberg does not have the second option "even under the miscellany", but if he decides on the first, it would mean a loss of as much as 29 billion dollars.
Otherwise, Europe is Meta's second-largest source of revenue, after the United States and Canada, which contribute $51.5 billion. In addition, the revenue per user in Europe during the last year increased by 35 percent, confirming that leaving this market is not a profitable solution.
"Meta's withdrawal from Europe would be a huge blow to a company that has had serious problems with competitors in recent years," believes Nikola Jagodić, a digital marketing specialist at the Smartpoint Adria agency.
The European Union's position on this issue is rather harsh. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck revealed that his life was fantastic during the four years without Facebook and Twitter, the duration of the problems caused by the hacking of his profiles, while French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire confirmed that we would all live just fine without these social networks.
According to NapoleonCat statistics, 4,844,900 Facebook users and 3,213,400 Instagram users were registered in Serbia during July 2022.
"Advertising on these social networks in our country is still at the level of one third of the total advertising budget, so in the event of the shutdown of these networks, companies would simply redirect that money to other platforms - Google, YouTube, soon TikTok, and maybe even new channels that would be formed in the meantime," says Nikola Jagodić, a digital marketing specialist at the Smartpoint Adria agency.
Member of the European Parliament Axel Voss is more measured in his approach to this topic. He is in favor of a compromise and an agreement on data exchange, with the possibility of finding an alternative for legal regulation, and for the GDPR to be somewhat more flexible. On the other hand, Vos believes that the company Meta should also correct its position, since the blackmail about leaving Europe is not correct in his opinion.
Despite the fact that over 300 million Europeans use Facebook and Instagram on a daily basis, comments about the possibility of abolishing these social networks are mostly positive.
Some users believe that Meta's withdrawal from this continent would actually be a good thing, and they are also delighted by the fact that the European Union is actually on the side of citizens. Others believe that European laws should be respected on European soil and that an American company has no right to interfere in the regulation of countries outside its borders.
Nikola Jagodić believes that this scenario can be an excellent opportunity for all new social networks emerging in Europe, which will harmonize their privacy policy with European Union legislation.
"Revenues from advertising on these social networks will be significantly lower than in the case of Meta, but this will not be too much of a problem because the European Union market is large enough, which can be very interesting for new startups," concludes the expert from the Smartpoint Adria agency, adding that we can expect a huge number of new social networks in just a few months.
In the event that the European market really remains "deprived" of Facebook and Instagram, other social networks such as TikTok, YouTube, and even Snapchat will gain not only many more users but also a much higher percentage of retention since we are already used to how freely we spend time on social networks. According to the nature of things, migration to already existing platforms will inevitably happen, according to Jagodić.
Given that this issue is still open, it is not known exactly what the withdrawal of Meta from Europe would look like - would the American company withdraw only as a legal entity, or would all existing Facebook and Instagram links be blocked?
In addition, it is important to consider whether this development of the situation will equally affect countries that are members of the European Union as well as those that are not. Because, let's recall, every country that collects data on member countries is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) even if it still hasn't implemented it, as is the case with our country.
In the end, Jagodić concludes that companies will always advertise where there is an audience's attention, be it Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, or some completely new platform.
In that sense, this kind of change will not be so painful. However, despite our natural need to seek out new things, we're not sure how easy it will really be to forget the days when we scrolled through our favorite feeds with our first morning coffee.
For Biznis.rs website text written by: Ivana Tomić, Smartpoint Adria Brand Specialist
Photo: Unsplash