Compared to the digital champions of the USA, the crème de la crème of the German economy looks pretty puny. This is also demonstrated by a comparison made in Gabor Steingart's Morning Briefing based on data from the Handelsblatt Research Institute. Google, for example, had around 80,000 employees in 2017, and each of these employees generated an average profit of €140,000. In contrast, Daimler, number two in the German leading index (measured by revenue) behind Volkswagen, has 289,000 employees and €36,000 profit per employee. The situation is similar in the other comparisons – Apple vs. Bayer and Facebook vs. Deutsche Bank – While one could certainly argue that these are comparing apples and oranges due to the very different business areas, one thing applies to both groups of three: The old economy (cars, chemicals, finance) is pitted against the new economy (smartphones, search engines, social networks). And the latter undeniably performs significantly better.
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