Europe’s love/hate relationship with Silicon Valley — and what that means for US tech firms

While European business leaders envy the American tech industry’s success and innovation and consumers are eager to try the latest gadget or service, European authorities are chafing at the tech firms' perceived indifference to their countries’ laws and culture. German CEOs have even taken to adopting some of the more famous habits of so-called digital disrupters. When Daimler’s Dieter Zetsche discussed the future with Uber CEO Travis Kalanick at a tech event in Berlin this spring, he wore blue jeans and sneakers. Axel-Springer’s Döpfner sent three of his top executives to live together in a house in the tech mecca of Palo Alto, Calif., for a year. In a corporate video about this experiment, Döpfner is seen wearing a hoodie. The Palo Alto house became a key part of Axel-Springer’s pitch to investors as a digital leader. Old-school European corporations are willing to pay top dollar to hire tech people with Silicon Valley experience. Last November, for example, Volkswagen hired Johann Jungwirth, who had worked for Apple in Cupertino, Calif., to “reinforce” digitalization. For Volkswagen, Jungwirth is the perfect poster boy for tech disruption expertise. He introduces himself as “JJ,” praises the merits of his Tesla (which he has since traded in for a VW E-Golf) and cites Steve Jobs. Meanwhile, European regulators don’t seem as convinced that Facebook and other US tech companies are worth emulating.