3 ms·

> Google is obviously a monopoly. Of which market though? Search: maybe. Ads: no.

• netcan 6y ago
  First, I think that once a strong monopoly exists monopolistic dynamics persist throughout the integrated layers. This is a premise of anti monopoly legislation. Search, mobile, adwords, "advertiser tools" like google analytics, play store, youtube. Google have huge market share in each layer. These reenforce each other, amplifying the monopoly dynamics. Second, I think adwords could qualify as a monopoly on its own. Online ad markets have grown a lot recently, but circa 2008 (I think) adwords market share peaked pretty high even if you define "market" as "all online ads". The market can be defined more narrowly too. Third, EU courts have already found against Google for monopsonistic behaviour in their adwords market. Competing search engines monetizing via adwords faced some dirty tricks, but adwords was the only buyer.
• threeseed 6y ago
  People also need to remember that being a monopoly isn't as big of a deal as what you do with that monopoly. If you try to extinguish competition like Microsoft did then you're going to be in trouble. Google Search for example has been routinely expanding to favour Google properties e.g. shopping, travel, news over third parties. With shopping being particular egregious where they are now starting to bypass third party ecommerce checkout flows entirely.