“Google should be broken up to restore a level playing field for media companies swamped by its ‘overwhelming’ market power, News Corp has told the competition regulator,” Amanda Meade and Amy Remeikis report for The Guardian. “Rupert Murdoch’s Australian arm has argued in a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that Google’s search engine and third-party advertising platform be separated to make it easier for digital publishers to compete for advertising.”
“‘Google operates in a ‘walled garden’ whereby its related businesses, particularly in the ad tech pipeline, secure and entrench Google’s dominance in general internet search,’ News Corp said in its submission, released on Tuesday. ‘Google’s market power across the ad tech services supply chain is overwhelming,'” Meade and Remeikis report. “Ad tech services are all the products Google offers advertisers – from Google Ads to Google Marketing and Google Ad Manager – which combine seamlessly with its ‘trove of personal data’ to make it attractive for advertisers.”
Meade and Remeikis report, “‘Divestments will work to correct the market structure, by replacing common ownership with separate ownership, where each separate owner has incentives to compete to gain the business of customers,’ the submission says.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Duh.
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.
The U.S. government has utterly failed to police Google. Because the people with the power to do so currently are corrupt. Follow the money. Hopefully, the European Union will help to correct the situation.
In the meantime, stop using Google search and Google products wherever possible. Monopolies are bad for everyone. — MacDailyNews, July 14, 2016
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If you haven’t already, give DuckDuckGo a try! https://duckduckgo.com
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With this unprecedented power, platforms have the ability to redirect into their pockets the advertising dollars that once went to newspapers and magazines. No one company should have the power to pick and choose which content reaches consumers and which doesn’t. — MacDailyNews, November 9, 2017
SEE ALSO:
European Union hits Google with record $2.73 billion fine for abusing internet search monopoly – June 27, 2017
Google’s Eric Schmidt wore staff badge at Hillary Clinton’s ‘victory’ party – November 16, 2016
WikiLeaks emails show extremely close relationship between Clinton campaign and Google’s Eric Schmidt – November 1, 2016
EU alleges Google skews search results to boost its own products and services – July 14, 2016
Eric Schmidt-backed startup stealthily working to put Hillary Clinton in the White House – October 9, 2015
U.S. FTC report details how Google skewed search results in its own favor – March 20, 2015
The FTC’s missed opportunity on Google – January 4, 2013
Google to settle U.S. FTC antitrust probe, sources say – January 2, 2013
Obama to reward Google’s Schmidt with Cabinet post? – December 5, 2012
Google outfoxes U.S. FCC – April 17, 2012
Consumer Watchdog calls for probe of Google’s inappropriate relationship with Obama administration – January 25, 2011
Wired: Google, CIA Invest in ‘future’ of Web monitoring – July 29, 2010
Google should just be broken. After stealing Apple’s ideas, and making them worse, they deserve it. Not only that, but they steal your personal data too! I am trying to switch from gmail so I know exactly what they are like!
In a market economy Google is succeeding on its own merits for good or bad. As a consumer only you have the power to change that by stopping use of Google services in your daily life. Having government step in would be relinquishing your power as a consumer.
Not that it’s not a bad idea, it’s also the pot calling the kettle black
Exactly.
Irrespective of the issues surrounding Google’s power, News Corporation exploits very close ties with multiple governments and is itself a perfect example of the type of company which should have it’s wings clipped.
Much as I dislike Google, if I had to make a choice between limiting the power of New Corp or Google, I would choose News Corp as the bigger global threat.
Yup. Who’d have thunk the owner of so many right-wing, pro-capitalist, anti-regulation, anti-government-interference media elements would demand government break up a monopoly gained through capitalism, lack of regulation and lack of government interference?
Oh of course, limits on free enterprise are only bad until it affects him, personally, and he can’t buy out the competition. Then you call in the “socialists” to do their thing.
If you split Google Search from the advertising revenue, how will it be financed?
Declare it a monopoly and regulate it like a utility.
the same way utilities are financed- with limits.
how did google exist before it owned 90% of web advertising?
It existed by being able to get 89% of advertising due to advertisers wanting to buy ‘space’ on Google’s search platform. If you want to stop Google, then convince those that buy advertising to buy elsewhere. Google only has power since everyone uses them and that resulted in what many consider to be a ‘monopoly’. Unlike ‘true’ monopolies that depend on owning the ‘last mile’ physical lines/pipes that pretty much makes it difficult if not impossible for consumers to switch providers without physically moving themselves, Google/Facebook and other online service companies can easily lose their monopolies by people just switching services. This is part of the reason it is hard to say they are truly monopolies. If you really want to push the definition you could argue that Google’s ‘real’ monopoly exists only in locations where Google Fiber is the only data connection available to the consumer.
MDN…
In your take replace “web search” with “iOS Apps” and your take would be just as valid.
The web is an open platform with no real alternative. If Android phones didn’t exist, you’d have a point.
iOS Developers are not Android Developers. Not having a choice is not having a choice.
Still… see my comments regarding Google in this thread.
M$ is the company with the main monopoly but that never got broken up. It’s been abusing its power for over 30 years.
Funny that News Corp should be complaining about Google. Not like News Corp every abuse their power.
It will be interesting to see how quickly the Faux news dependents pivot to support Warren now that deep state operative Murdoch has done so.
The evil gnome had been out-manoeuvred by a bigger evil gnome…
In Australia we could use the same argument against News where they control over 70 percent of the newspaper market.
As for their Sky segment named Sky After Dark (similar to Fox News) the opposite is the case with a mere 26,000 viewers.
It’s a relief to see that hypocrisy can still be used to push a particular argument.