Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 352 posts

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#81

Post by cmurf »

devuo wrote: post #35
jondubois wrote: post #14

I agree they should be regulated. The world is a better place with lots of smaller companies. These big companies turn regular people into corporate livestock to serve the wealthy. If you were to analyze Facebook as if it were a country, the wealth gap among employees would be atrocious - The top 1% would own maybe 99% of the wealth of the country and everyone else would earn a minuscule fraction of the total value t…

And yet, only very large companies are able to make a certain class of investments in infrastructure and services — that push technology and society forward as a whole — that small to mid companies due to lack of capacity never could, and governments due to lack of vision and political will never would.

That's not the only way. People engage voluntarily in cooperative, yet temporary agreements, to work on projects for the benefit of the whole group. Companies join in trade groups which are somewhat similar. So possibly a new class of temporary corporation, in which corporations invest, for a specific life time and goal purpose, where they can share resources and a common goal, without any one company basically railroading local, state, or national politics. Or any one company's business being disrupted means the end of that venture.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#82

Post by resf »

amelius wrote: post #70
devuo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, only very large companies are able to make a certain class of investments in infrastructure and services — that push technology and society forward as a whole — that small to mid companies due to lack of capacity never could, and governments due to lack of vision and political will never would.

It depends on the perspective of what "large" means. If "large" means "rich", then you are right. However, if "large" means "comprised of many employees", then this is not necessarily true. So perhaps a first good step is to put a limit on the number of employees. This also enforces a "modular" style of working, where companies can more easily be swapped for other companies, and more reuse of "company-modules" can ha…

An employee cap would benefit big tech companies hugely. Tech companies would receive an even greater share of investment than they currently do, as even the largest tech companies pale in comparison to say Walmart (in terms of employment)

Also no politician would ever support this.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#83

Post by rdlecler1 »

The problem here is that only one or two of their business lines actually make money. Everything else simply strengthens network effects and gives them optionality for new businesses. It would be hard to break up Google and say: you get to provide search for the US and another company has to do it for Europe. While that may be in the interest of Europe, it's of less interest to the US.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#84

Post by pikzen »

devuo wrote: post #35
jondubois wrote: post #14

I agree they should be regulated. The world is a better place with lots of smaller companies. These big companies turn regular people into corporate livestock to serve the wealthy. If you were to analyze Facebook as if it were a country, the wealth gap among employees would be atrocious - The top 1% would own maybe 99% of the wealth of the country and everyone else would earn a minuscule fraction of the total value t…

And yet, only very large companies are able to make a certain class of investments in infrastructure and services — that push technology and society forward as a whole — that small to mid companies due to lack of capacity never could, and governments due to lack of vision and political will never would.

Yeah. We have those tiny things called governments too. You might know them for some investments such as, the US interstate highways, space flight, the Internet. It's amazing how the collective will of the people has managed all of that without forming a very large company.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#85

Post by hjnilsson »

mstolpm wrote: post #44
tyingq wrote: post #5

Feels like it's getting worse too. For example, things like Google Home and Alexa discourage choice. "Order me a pizza" means they are now either kingmakers in the space, or incented to open their own pizza business. I'm not a fan of big government, but at some point depending solely on their goodwill seems dangerous.

In general, I agree with your warning that Alexa and co. could limit choice. But is really anyone ordering just "a pizza" or "a lightning cable" by voice without further specification? Isn't customer satisfaction key for using the assistant in the future again? If using a virtual assistant for ordering, I'd instruct Alexa (or Google or Siri) to order a specific pizza in a specific size from a specific pizza delivery.…

But Alexa extracting a 5-10% (or even 30%) fee on all pizza places through that access definitely hurts all pizza businesses, anywhere. And those that opt out will miss that business.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#86

Post by qrbLPHiKpiux »

jondubois wrote: post #14

I agree they should be regulated. The world is a better place with lots of smaller companies. These big companies turn regular people into corporate livestock to serve the wealthy. If you were to analyze Facebook as if it were a country, the wealth gap among employees would be atrocious - The top 1% would own maybe 99% of the wealth of the country and everyone else would earn a minuscule fraction of the total value t…

The masses are feeding it because they don't know better. Yet they want regulators out of their way. We can't win!

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#87

Post by jorblumesea »

What's to stop the most powerful companies from using regulation to squash business competitors? Almost every industry has abused this to a certain extent. Regulatory capture is a thing, at least here in the US.

Regulations are a double edged sword and it's often used to stifle new business and crush possible competition.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#88

Post by Asdfbla »

I'm surprised the EU hasn't acted against Google already. Remember when they (rightfully) went after Microsoft and forced them to offer a browser choice? And that wasn't even the peak of the Internet Explorer monopoly.

And yet it's allowed that like 80% smartphones sold in Europe come with Android versions that basically lock the user into the Google ecosystem, else you can't use the default store.

Re: Are Google, Amazon and others getting too big?

#89

Post by rdlecler1 »

friedman23 wrote: post #36
jondubois wrote: post #14

I agree they should be regulated. The world is a better place with lots of smaller companies. These big companies turn regular people into corporate livestock to serve the wealthy. If you were to analyze Facebook as if it were a country, the wealth gap among employees would be atrocious - The top 1% would own maybe 99% of the wealth of the country and everyone else would earn a minuscule fraction of the total value t…

do you have any evidence that your suggestions will actually improve the consumer experience or are you just suggesting killing businesses because of a gut feeling and some anti corporate sentiment? >If we let monopolies take over, then the economy of the world will start to mirror the economies within these large corporations. None of these companies can be said to be monopolies. > We will gradually lose freedom of…

If Google doesn't have an effective monopoly then I don't think I understand the word. The only search engine relavant to my search results is Google and I don't here to many people talking about optimizing their SEO for bing.
Post reply on HN