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|| In my view forcing a more level playing field for competitors that don't have a strangle hold on the ad business is kind of the whole point of having antitru

by cowl 7y ago

|| In my view forcing a more level playing field for competitors that don't have a strangle hold on the ad business is kind of the whole point of having antitrust legislation. Actually no antitrust legislation isn't supposed to force competition just for the sake of it but TO PROTECT CONSUMERS. And while there is the potential that consumers can be hurt in a hypothetical abusive future,right now with products like Free maps, free search etc the consumers aren't hurt at all.

jillesvangurp 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_law Protecting consumers is a useful side effect but not the main goal. The real goal is ensuring markets continue to function, which indirectly serves consumers as well as stimulating economic growth by allowing businesses. Without regulation, the whole capitalist system reverts back to feudalism without any form of real competition. There are lots of ad driven businesses that source their ads from these companies. There's no good reason why Google's search engine would be any different if it were a separate business. Same with maps.
- cowl 7y ago
  it is debatable what function means. The Digital Economy created these years principally based on technology created by subsidizing their costs internally by ads is far greater than what is lost. If the market is segmented in thousands of competitors it might sound good but it will stagnate because noone will have the power to really innovate. The example of mail and Maps was not accidental. we had Thousands of mail providers before and all it brought us was 5MB mailboxes, maps were out of reach for the average consumers and costed hundreds of $ for each country you wanted to have access too (updated maybe once in 2-3 years and only route information and very few POI). The market was segmented and noone had any real interest or the power to push the envelope.

by cowl 7y ago

jillesvangurp 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_law Protecting consumers is a useful side effect but not the main goal. The real goal is ensuring markets continue to function, which indirectly serves consumers as well as stimulating economic growth by allowing businesses. Without regulation, the whole capitalist system reverts back to feudalism without any form of real competition. There are lots of ad driven businesses that source their ads from these companies. There's no good reason why Google's search engine would be any different if it were a separate business. Same with maps.

cowl 7y ago
it is debatable what function means. The Digital Economy created these years principally based on technology created by subsidizing their costs internally by ads is far greater than what is lost. If the market is segmented in thousands of competitors it might sound good but it will stagnate because noone will have the power to really innovate. The example of mail and Maps was not accidental. we had Thousands of mail providers before and all it brought us was 5MB mailboxes, maps were out of reach for the average consumers and costed hundreds of $ for each country you wanted to have access too (updated maybe once in 2-3 years and only route information and very few POI). The market was segmented and noone had any real interest or the power to push the envelope.