“Imagine a not-too-distant future in which trustbusters force Facebook to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp. Imagine a time when Amazon’s cloud and delivery services are so dominant the company is broken up like AT&T,” Christopher Mims reports for The Wall Street Journal. “Imagine Google’s search or YouTube becoming regulated monopolies, like electricity and water.”
“Facebook Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are enjoying profit margins, market dominance and clout that, according to economists and historians, suggest they’re developing into a new category of monopolists,” Mims reports. “They may not yet be ripe for such extreme regulatory action, but as they consolidate control of their markets, negative consequences for innovation and competition are becoming evident.”
“Experts aren’t, however, lumping in Apple Inc. with the new monopolists,” Mims reports. “Like Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. before it, Apple is considered more vulnerable to competitive disruption, despite the fact that it tops the tech world in revenue, profit and market capitalization.”
“Together, Google and Facebook take in 73% of U.S. digital advertising. It may not be something you think about often, but that success rests largely on the fact that both have spent so much money building data centers and filling them with hardware and software designed by an elite, in-demand set of engineers. In this way they resemble the telegraph giants, with investments in physical infrastructure so large no upstart could match them,” Mims reports. “They also benefit from something historically unprecedented: the ability to get users to subsidize them with enormous quantities of free labor. Their systems are fueled by personal information, but instead of them hunting for it, people willingly provide it.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote two years ago:
Imagine if your livelihood depended on one company that had not only monopolized web search (and, thereby, basically controlled how new customers find you), but also controlled the bulk of online advertising dollars which funded your business and which they could pull, simply threaten to pull, or reduce rates at any time? Now also imagine if you believe this monopolist basically stole the product of another company that is the very subject of your business? How much would you criticize the monopolist thief’s business practices?
You might guess that it would be a tough road to walk. (We’re only imagining, of course!)
That would be a good example of why monopolies are bad for everyone… Stop using Google search and Google products wherever possible. Monopolies are bad for everyone.
SEE ALSO:
European Union hits Google with record $2.73 billion fine for abusing internet search monopoly – June 27, 2017
Google could face a $9 billion EU fine for rigging search results in its favor – June 2, 2017
Google attempts to defend Android in European Commission antitrust case – November 10, 2016
EU alleges Google skews search results to boost its own products and services – July 14, 2016
EU charges Google rigs global market for Android mobile apps – April 20, 2016
The Android bubble bursts as Europeans flock to Apple’s iPhone – September 2, 2015
Android loss continues in Europe as 27% of smartphone users dump Android for Apple iPhone – September 2, 2015
Android fanboy actually uses an iPhone for 2 months, dumps Android phone – August 11, 2015
Apple iPhone sees highest switching rate from Android ever recorded – August 10, 2015
Nomura ups Apple to ‘Buy’ on strong iPhone growth, increasing Android switchers – July 31, 2015
Significant Android to iPhone switching weakens market for Samsung Galaxy S6 – March 24, 2015
Analyst: Android switchers fueling iPhone growth; Android users even more interested in Apple Watch than iOS users – March 23, 2015
Over 85% of new iPhone sales are switchers, mostly from Android – January 30, 2015
Google’s Android: The Fisher Price of smartphones, training wheels for Apple’s iPhone – May 2, 2014
“Now, also imagine they became an ISP? Well, then, we would back off completely and let them do whatever the heck they wanted to do. Because they’ve never done anything like this before, and being an ISP, means that they would never do those things in the future.”
MDN forgot to add those lines. 🙂 It’s amazing that folks believe Amazon and Google would do this but NOT Comcast. It’s also amazing that anyone would think ANY of those companies would be broken up. That would take a legislative action and there’s not Even a remote chance of that happening LOL
Once again, it needs to be stated that a monopoly is not illegal or anything. It is the abuse of monopoly that is targetted
The monopoly today is virtual, and consists of the alliance of data sharing between the major players. All can claim “I din du nuffin!” while they monitor, record and monetize our every thought and movement 24/7/365. Governments play along because they too have access to the treasure trove. If he were alive today George Orwell would nod knowingly, we all love Big Brother — just as he predicted.
Yes to “Governments play along because they too have access to the treasure trove.”
Surely Microsoft is the biggest Monopoly the world has ever seen in a particular market, i.e desktop computing
No, much bigger Monopolies existed before.