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>Apple and Google indisputably have a duopoly over mobile OS. A duopoly is not a monopoly. Unfortunately, anti-trust law seems to only be concerned with monop

>Apple and Google indisputably have a duopoly over mobile OS. A duopoly is not a monopoly. Unfortunately, anti-trust law seems to only be concerned with monopolies, and totally ignores duopolies and oligopolies. >The duopolists openly conspiring. Exactly. >Google indisputably has a monopoly over web search: ~93% market share. (I'll never understand why we've done nothing legally about this.) This isn't quite a monopoly (Bing does exist, you know), plus it's free (or "free"). It doesn't help when the competition is so awful, though. See yesterday's article and discussion about DDG. Many times, monopolies (or near-monopolies, or duopolies) arise because the competition is so inept and incompetent.

happymellon 4y ago
Having competition doesn't stop a monopoly. A monopoly is where there is a single player that has enough power to manipulate the market. Despite Bing existing, Google can manipulate traffic by altering its search results and due to it having 93% of the search share, it can manipulate it's position to direct people to one site over another or kill a site by no longer including it in results.
- andsoitis 4y ago
  What is your proposed solution? Prevent people from using Google to search?
  - happymellon 4y ago
    That would be Googles solution so that it could show meaningful competition and Bing would be a credible alternative. My solution would be to fine them 25% of their total revenue every time we see market manipulation due to Google altering search results. If we have no evidence of that, then I don't see a problem with the current situation. As for Epic, they have plenty of alternative platforms to use. The fact that they don't target the Steam Deck because Tim Sweeney is petty makes me have very little sympathy for their argument.
threeseed 4y ago
> Unfortunately, anti-trust law seems to only be concerned with monopolies, and totally ignores duopolies and oligopolies No. Anti-trust law is all about the nature of the competition not the number of participants. If the market simply isn't functioning they can and have intervened.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  In theory, not in practice (any more).

happymellon 4y ago

Having competition doesn't stop a monopoly. A monopoly is where there is a single player that has enough power to manipulate the market. Despite Bing existing, Google can manipulate traffic by altering its search results and due to it having 93% of the search share, it can manipulate it's position to direct people to one site over another or kill a site by no longer including it in results.

andsoitis 4y ago
What is your proposed solution? Prevent people from using Google to search?
- happymellon 4y ago
  That would be Googles solution so that it could show meaningful competition and Bing would be a credible alternative. My solution would be to fine them 25% of their total revenue every time we see market manipulation due to Google altering search results. If we have no evidence of that, then I don't see a problem with the current situation. As for Epic, they have plenty of alternative platforms to use. The fact that they don't target the Steam Deck because Tim Sweeney is petty makes me have very little sympathy for their argument.

threeseed 4y ago

> Unfortunately, anti-trust law seems to only be concerned with monopolies, and totally ignores duopolies and oligopolies No. Anti-trust law is all about the nature of the competition not the number of participants. If the market simply isn't functioning they can and have intervened.

midoridensha 4y ago
In theory, not in practice (any more).