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- #TO BREAK GOOGLE’S MONOPOLY ON SEARCH, MAKE ITS INDEX PUBLIC ANDROID#
- #TO BREAK GOOGLE’S MONOPOLY ON SEARCH, MAKE ITS INDEX PUBLIC FREE#
These fees can take many forms, including the necessity for merchants to spend more on advertising in order to gain visibility Amazon products don’t have to pay such a levy. These rents may come in the form of additional advantage given to the marketplace’s own private-label products, but also through the fees that are paid by merchants who sell through that platform.
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The control that the platforms have over placement and visibility puts them in a unique position to collect what economists call rents: that is, value extracted through the ownership of a limited resource. As the platform owner favors its own offerings over those of its suppliers, choice is reduced, though it is only in the endgame that consumer pricing-the typical measure of a monopoly-begins to be affected. Power over sellers ultimately translates into power over customers as well. Over time, though, consumers feel the bite. A dominant platform can squeeze its suppliers while continuing to pass along part of the benefit to consumers-but keeping more and more of it for themselves.
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Any abuse of market power is likely to show up first on the supply side.
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The platforms have the power to take advantage of either side of their marketplace.
#TO BREAK GOOGLE’S MONOPOLY ON SEARCH, MAKE ITS INDEX PUBLIC FREE#
A fresh approach to antitrustĪll of the internet giants-Amazon, Google, Facebook, and insofar as app stores are considered, Apple-provide the illusion of free markets, in which billions of consumers choose among millions of suppliers’ offerings, which compete on the basis of price, quality, and availability. And these choices are not always in consumers’ best interests. These giants don’t just compete on the basis of product quality and price-they control the market through the algorithms and design features that decide which products users will see and be able to choose from. However, this view of antitrust leaves out some unique characteristics of digital platforms and marketplaces. (In fact, surveys have suggested that between seven and nine out of 10 Americans will check Amazon to compare the price of a purchase.) As long as the monopoly doesn’t lead to us forking out more money, then antitrust regulators traditionally leave it alone. And as anyone who has shopped online will know, Amazon is nearly always the cheaper option. This kind of competition is taken for granted by antitrust regulators, who are generally more concerned with the end cost for consumers.
#TO BREAK GOOGLE’S MONOPOLY ON SEARCH, MAKE ITS INDEX PUBLIC ANDROID#
Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android don’t just compete with each other as smartphone platforms, but also with the app vendors who rely on smartphones to sell their products. Likewise, Google does not just compete with other search engines like Bing and DuckDuckGo, but with everyone who produces content on the world wide web. Amazon’s fast-growing advertising business is thus a kind of tax on its merchants. And because Amazon is now leading with featured products rather than those its customers think are the best, its merchants are incentivized to advertise on the platform. Amazon also competes with its merchants for visibility on its platform, and charges them additional fees for favored placement. This competition isn’t just the obvious kind, such as the Amazon Basics-branded batteries that by 2016 represented one third of all online battery sales, as well as similar Amazon products in audio, home electronics, baby wipes, bed sheets, and kitchenware. Specialty retailers like Walgreens and CVS in the pharmacy world and Kroger and Albertson’s in groceries also dwarf Amazon’s presence in their categories.īut Amazon does not just compete with Walmart, CVS, Kroger, and other retailers-it also competes with the merchants who sell products through its platform. Despite Amazon’s leadership in online retail, Walmart is more than double Amazon’s size as a general retailer, with Costco not far behind Amazon. In Bezos’s defense, for many of the products Amazon sells, there are indeed many alternative sources, suggesting plenty of competition.