I am a Dutch person living in Germany, and I've never head of GAFA or NATU either.

I also found the article quite weak. Sure, the 'GAFA' companies have different market penetrations and different revenue models. But there is also something that binds them: they all build ecosystems and try to bind people to them. E.g. All four offer cloud storage, three offer music and movies, three of them have phones and tablets (I'll not count the HTC First), etc.

I think some resistance against against these companies in Europe come from the fact that they aim for hosting your digital life, which leads to concerns, such as how they treat data and whether US law enforcement can easily access it.

The envy that is mentioned primarily comes from governments who are upset that their country does not have a healthy startup economy as SV. Or relatively old European companies (e.g. publishing houses) that see having Google, Facebook, and other as gatekeepers as a threat to their bottom-line.

I haven't heard any of those abbreviations either. And what is Tesla doing in "NATU"? I thought it was in some states in the US where Tesla's business model is forbidden (i.e. selling directly to the customer). I don't think an EU member state would be allowed to forbid it. And you can't really compare EU/US like this, different states/countries can have very different rules.

Weird article title indeed. And just to clarify: Sweden, Denmark and UK are in the EU, none of them have the euro.

You're right, Sweden isn't on the Euro. I stand corrected.

Minor correction: Sweden isn't in the euro zone.