US monopolies stifle sense of creativity

The economic result of China's internet policy is that it is the only country in the world with an indigenous social network and software industry - Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, etc. - able to compete with the Silicon Valley giants. Despite having large markets and educated engineers, both India and Europe mostly use software from the United States and internet forums.

A recent KPMG International survey of business leaders found that 23 percent of respondents said that China "shows the most promise for disruptive technology breakthroughs that will have a global impact", close behind the US at 29 percent. All other countries are in single digits.

Fifteen or 20 years ago, Silicon Valley was a highly competitive, innovative, and entrepreneurial place. But, today those competitive companies have been replaced by a few rich, entrenched monopolies.