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The argument "but there are competitors" – that the very existence of other players in a market should preclude the blocking of acquisitions – is flawed and mis

The argument "but there are competitors" – that the very existence of other players in a market should preclude the blocking of acquisitions – is flawed and misleading. For competition to strengthen a space, it needs to be meaningful competition. The goal for regulators should not be "more than one player in every category." It should be diverse product expression, improved customer utility, and most of all ZERO winner-take-all effects. That last item (winner-take-all) is crucial to understand, and I'm sad that it is no longer a major part of economic discourse (as it once was when systems-thinking was more common). Winner-take-all effects often occur without an explicit monopoly, yet devastate the category and its adjacent categories.

that_guy_iain 4y ago
> For competition to strengthen a space, it needs to be meaningful competition. There are meaningful competitors to Adobe's design tools. There are quite a few applications like Figma with a decent amount of traction. The fact they will be receiving an uptick in users will increase their meaningfulness which means Adobe acquiring Figma is not lessening the competition.
- MajimasEyepatch 4y ago
  Why do you think that other companies will see an uptick in users from this? Most companies are not going to renegotiate contracts, update all their processes and tools, and retrain all their users just because this got bought by Adobe (which they are probably already paying for other tools). This absolutely reduces competition.
  - that_guy_iain 4y ago
    > Why do you think that other companies will see an uptick in users from this? Because the number of people who are saying "Adobe is going to ruin Figma". While companies aren't going to renegotitate, freelancers and designers doing personal work will just switch to another freemium tool. And tools end up in the work toolchain by the employees using them and suggesting.

that_guy_iain 4y ago

> For competition to strengthen a space, it needs to be meaningful competition. There are meaningful competitors to Adobe's design tools. There are quite a few applications like Figma with a decent amount of traction. The fact they will be receiving an uptick in users will increase their meaningfulness which means Adobe acquiring Figma is not lessening the competition.

MajimasEyepatch 4y ago
Why do you think that other companies will see an uptick in users from this? Most companies are not going to renegotiate contracts, update all their processes and tools, and retrain all their users just because this got bought by Adobe (which they are probably already paying for other tools). This absolutely reduces competition.
- that_guy_iain 4y ago
  > Why do you think that other companies will see an uptick in users from this? Because the number of people who are saying "Adobe is going to ruin Figma". While companies aren't going to renegotitate, freelancers and designers doing personal work will just switch to another freemium tool. And tools end up in the work toolchain by the employees using them and suggesting.