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Consumer's can't solve this from the ground up. What's needed is to prevent certain kinds of key acquisitions. The law around acquisitions is too permissive i
by platz 9y ago
Consumer's can't solve this from the ground up.
What's needed is to prevent certain kinds of key acquisitions.
The law around acquisitions is too permissive in an age of network effects; acquisition laws were fine pre-internet but don't solve their intended purpose anymore.
Normally, the market corrects against the biggest players because the biggest players are slow to change culture and their business.
But, acquisitions are the mechanism by which the big players are preventing themselves from being disrupted by smaller, more nimble players.
If the big players can simply buy up any new comers (who will want a deserved pay-out for their efforts) on the scene, they maintain complete control regardless of what consumers want.
Otherwise, any "alternative practices" you try to foster will simply be crushed, if they ever become a large enough threat.
https://stratechery.com/2017/why-facebook-shouldnt-be-allowed-to-buy-tbh/ https://stratechery.com/2017/why-facebook-shouldnt-be-allowe...
- dreamfactored 9y agoThe problem of monopolies and cartels isn't new. It's systemic and why government enforced market regulation is necessary to protect the interests of citizens. The newer question is perhaps how you effectively nationalise or even just police organisations that are as international in their operations as google or fb. The most effective approach so far is simply to ban them in your country and grow your own as the Chinese have done.
- platz 9y agoThe problem now through is that these guys are "effective" monopolies, but they aren't monopolies according to the court's definition because they can always claim that the consumer doesn't have to use their service, they have choice to use some other dinky competitor. The problem is that in the internet age, it is not in controlling supply but in effectively unlimited demand created by combination of zero marginal cost to add customers and network effects of the internet.