GLOBALIZATION IS AMERICANIZATION:

CEO Bob van Dijk talked to ET's Biswarup Gooptu, Madhav Chanchani & Arijit Barman about the company's next big bets. Excerpts: [...]

ET : Any emerging tech you are interested in? 

BvD: We are extremely excited about the potential of blockchain to change how the Internet is governed. We are excited about the technology, excited about the governance models. We are very interested just because of the disruptive nature of It. I think it can really transform the way people interact with Internet. There are questions about scalability. So there's a lot of work that needs to be done.

ET: There is an ongoing debate about having a level-playing field, capital dumping by global majors. Your thoughts?

BvD: India needs to make sure that it builds an ecosystem for the success of local businesses. If I am blunt about it, I think Europe is a digital colony of the US. Europe has nothing. There's no decision-making in search, content, social or video, which basically means there is no ecosystem of capable Internet entrepreneurs or professionals. It's a disaster. To me, this means that in the next 10 years nothing else will happen either, because you need to have that core ecosystem. I think, If I were your Prime Minister, I would have that bent of mind. I don't think it means throwing out foreign capital. You want capital and you want skill. That's smart. But in the process, you should try to avoid becoming the Europe of the Internet, where the decisions are made, and all the key talent is elsewhere, and all you have are the sales and the execution here. I think that would be a very dangerous outcome. Europe doesn't have a big tax base. Who pays taxes there? None of the tech giants does, and there is no ecosystem of entrepreneurs. So, it will be a decade of nothing.

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