3 ms·
Taken in the context of Google as a whole, this seems like pretty good evidence that Google does not consider itself to benefit from monopoly power like the DOJ
by inlined 3y ago
Taken in the context of Google as a whole, this seems like pretty good evidence that Google does not consider itself to benefit from monopoly power like the DOJ claims. If Google did have a monopolistic advantage, they could refuse to pay the link tax. Clearly they're worried about losing market share to other search engines.
[usual disclaimer: I work at Google but on nothing related to search or policy]
- cool_dude85 3y ago>If Google did have a monopolistic advantage, they could refuse to pay the link tax. Or maybe they think the engineering work to maintain a whole separate search page, and revenue loss from not including links, is less than the amount they stand to pay.
- freedomben 3y agoI'm not sure I agree. I'm not sure I disagree either though. But it seems like it might be a false dichotomy. For example, with a current gov like Canada, I think they'd be more worried about government action than competitors, and that's plenty of an incentive to get them to pay the money.
- beej71 3y agoI thought they did it because they figured paying the tax was maximizing revenue. But I hadn't considered the antitrust advantages.