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If the established players promote regulation which make it harder for new entrants to gain a foothold, that's cartel-like behavior and it hurts consumers. In g

If the established players promote regulation which make it harder for new entrants to gain a foothold, that's cartel-like behavior and it hurts consumers. In general, regulations should promote competition because competition results in better products and services. The examples you list are all businesses that I wouldn't want to disappear. The problem with these businesses is that software-driven industries have monopoly characteristics, which among other things lead to the concentration of wealth you mention. Consumers would be better off if we had five Ebays or five Ubers or five AirBnBs, but for a variety of reasons this is currently unlikely--the weaponization of patent law, the high up front costs of developing new software, etc. Patent reform is a relatively straightforward area where better regulations could promote competition within software-driven industries. A more controversial approach (at least in the US, but the EU had no problem with doing this to Microsoft) is compulsory licensing of intellectual property when monopolies have abused their position. If the ultimate goal is to reduce wealth concentration and ownership, we might also consider making it easier for firms to IPO again.

sokoloff 9y ago
We do have 5 EBays and it sucks IMO. I have to search EBay, autotrader, craigslist(s), Amazon 3PM, AliExpress, BringATrailer, FChat/RennList, Etsy, Tindie, and others to get the whole market for whatever random thing I'm looking for. For lodging, it's AirBnB, VRBO, TripAdvisor, Priceline, hotels.com, Expedia, trivago, and 15 others that I'm not thinking of, half of which are owned by one of the others. Uber has Lyft and other smaller competitors as well. Users go to where the vibrant market is; they aren't, in general, helped by having the market sharded for arbitrary reasons. Even back to the days of Trajan's Forum, local produce markets, or modern-day "Auto Mile"s, consumers seem to prefer the convenience of one place over many.
varjag 9y ago
> If the established players promote regulation which make it harder for new entrants to gain a foothold, that's cartel-like behavior and it hurts consumers. It's called level playing field and it's not catered to multinationals in particular. There is no shortage of independent car rentals and hotels around the world. In fact am writing this from a non-chain beach condo and there's a mom&pops car rental maybe 250 meters away. Somehow they are able to comply to a few simple regulations, it is a bit dramatic to paint comparatively huge centralized corporations as victims of oligopolies here.

sokoloff 9y ago

We do have 5 EBays and it sucks IMO. I have to search EBay, autotrader, craigslist(s), Amazon 3PM, AliExpress, BringATrailer, FChat/RennList, Etsy, Tindie, and others to get the whole market for whatever random thing I'm looking for. For lodging, it's AirBnB, VRBO, TripAdvisor, Priceline, hotels.com, Expedia, trivago, and 15 others that I'm not thinking of, half of which are owned by one of the others. Uber has Lyft and other smaller competitors as well. Users go to where the vibrant market is; they aren't, in general, helped by having the market sharded for arbitrary reasons. Even back to the days of Trajan's Forum, local produce markets, or modern-day "Auto Mile"s, consumers seem to prefer the convenience of one place over many.

varjag 9y ago

> If the established players promote regulation which make it harder for new entrants to gain a foothold, that's cartel-like behavior and it hurts consumers. It's called level playing field and it's not catered to multinationals in particular. There is no shortage of independent car rentals and hotels around the world. In fact am writing this from a non-chain beach condo and there's a mom&pops car rental maybe 250 meters away. Somehow they are able to comply to a few simple regulations, it is a bit dramatic to paint comparatively huge centralized corporations as victims of oligopolies here.