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Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

nytimes.com

11–20 of 309 posts

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#11
post #8
post #3

Not MS? They're all kinda up to the same shenanigans really

Does Microsoft really have any monopolies? They have a big OS market share, but operating systems have become less and less relevant as mobile computing grows. Same deal with office. Bing is nowhere near the market share as google. Azure competes with AWS and others. Xbox competes with Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft store competes with Steam. IE and edge are also being beaten by Chrome. I think the argument that Micros…

Does Microsoft really have any monopolies?

What's the difference between a monopoly/almost-monopoly and a really deep "moat?"

"...All these other companies are taking the heat now - not for our lack of trying to get into these spaces, though (laughs)."

We're #2. We try harder.

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#12
post #9
post #3

Not MS? They're all kinda up to the same shenanigans really

Not to say there aren't things they could probably be investigated for, but in the cases of search, cloud computing, and mobile Microsoft has actually been the 'underdog' competitor. They successfully gained inroads to cloud computing thanks to Azure, but Bing has never had the search market share of Google, and mobile offerings were never Android or iOS. Microsoft as the 'victim' of anti-competitive behavior would h…

Azure is like the 2nd biggest cloud. Underdog...I think not.

I mentioned them mostly since it seems odd excluding them more than specific actions they took.

Google is going to get wrecked on anti-trust somewhere though that's for sure. My money is on mobile or browser.

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#13
post #8
post #3

Not MS? They're all kinda up to the same shenanigans really

Does Microsoft really have any monopolies? They have a big OS market share, but operating systems have become less and less relevant as mobile computing grows. Same deal with office. Bing is nowhere near the market share as google. Azure competes with AWS and others. Xbox competes with Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft store competes with Steam. IE and edge are also being beaten by Chrome. I think the argument that Micros…

>Same deal with office.

Excel? I'm in the finance world and I can say with confidence that they've got 100% market share.

We use google sheet too. Every day even....for tracking everyone's QuizOfTheDay scores. Great track but not even close to Excel replacement.

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#14
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Government finally had it with the amount of power they have over culture and messing with their 3 letter agency initiatives? I am one of those pessimistic folk who views everything on a geopolitical stage as a power struggle, so..

From the left, populist economists calling for Big Tech to be broken up for monopoly and tax dodging. From the right, culture warriors calling for regulation so their chosen avatars of free speech are not de-platformed. From the bottom, consumer advocates angry at the privacy abuses of large corporations, not to mention increasingly shoddy quality caused by lack of competition. From the top, as you mentioned- tech co…

Which means they are legitimately too big and too powerful that affects every faction of the political spectrum.

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#15

The potential cases against the large tech firms are all coming in at the same time. I wonder what could be driving it. If they move foward, I hope that the nature of the results are good for the public (i.e. preventing anti-competitive behavior)

As far as Apple goes, I'm not sure. But Facebook and Google have been walking in this direction from their own behavior regarding consumer data and omnipresence online.

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#16
post #10
post #3

Not MS? They're all kinda up to the same shenanigans really

If anything, their efforts in search and cloud compute delayed or muted the case for monopolistic behavior by others as they can point to MS and say, see, they are competing against us successfully, we’re not the big bad monopolists some claim us to be.

How ironic that they once bailed out Apple to use as their own lightning rod.

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#18
post #3

Not MS? They're all kinda up to the same shenanigans really

Can you provide even a single current example? Or just jumping on the MS-bashing bandwagon 'cause it's fun?

Apple, Facebook, and Google all have current practices that are questionable. Pointing fingers are companies that have already paid their dues is just useless noise.

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#19

Surprised to not see Amazon on here, esp. given DJT's hatred of Bezos. But maybe they're saving the best for last. Certainly would not be surprising given Amazon's developing vertical monopoly on all things bought and sold.

Amazon is on the list. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20087732

Re: Antitrust Troubles Snowball for Tech Giants as Lawmakers Join In

#20
post #19

Surprised to not see Amazon on here, esp. given DJT's hatred of Bezos. But maybe they're saving the best for last. Certainly would not be surprising given Amazon's developing vertical monopoly on all things bought and sold.

Amazon is on the list. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20087732

Ah ok. Well there we go. Let the fireworks begin.
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