Break up Google.
And Amazon. And Microsoft. And Apple. And Netflix. And every other conglomerate...
One is unlike the others.
You're probably looking at Facebook, Oracle. Netflix is a small fish.
U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
101–110 of 452 posts
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#102Given the volume and profitably of tech trading by members of Congress (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26821601) I have ZERO confidence that any useful legislation will come of it. It will just be a bunch of earnest and disingenuous theatre by the very people profiting from a bunch of companies who make Microsoft circa 1995 look like a kitten.
For my part, I think the fundamental business model of profiting from user engagement (where screen time is money) is toxic, and we can’t fix anything until we find a way to effectively eliminate it.
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
The standard for antitrust enforcement for decades has been when the action of a company harms consumers. How does Amazon harm consumers? I mean precisely, how? Amazon is one of the most highly rated companies in the US by its customers. Its NPS score is 69 and 70 is considered "world class". I can get almost anything online shipped to my house the SAME DAY. If Amazon sends you the wrong item they'll let you keep the…
It's possible for a monopolist to have a great product that allows people to do amazing things that were never previously possible and still be harming the consumer. Microsoft had the leading desktop operating system in the 90s that allowed millions of ordinary people to start using computers for the first time, yet their browser bundling was considered problematic. Bell telephone allowed you to talk to people across…
Microsoft's dirty tricks with DOS, Windows, and other would-be commodity software are legend. They should have gotten parted out into OS, Desktop suite, and probably several other fragments a long time ago. That stuff was a nightmare for me as a consumer.
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
iOS isn't 90%+ of the phone market.
In some markets it’s pretty close (US teenagers for example).
Is there a relevant law or court case that takes sectors of consumers into account? That one could be more relevant because they are vulnerable, or less relevant because the devices are bought in their parents name.
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#105> potentially barring companies like Amazon.com from operating the markets in which they also compete Absolutely bananas that this haven't been fixed yet! How can Google own the entire ads market and still be allowed to compete in it? Obviously for-profit companies will abuse their positions if it'll earn them more money, and fines ends up being the cost of doing business instead of deterrents. How is Apple allowed t…
Is that really a fair ranking? We don't even know, We kinda know because people keep using Google. If people thought the results weren't good, they would switch to bing.
The terms "fair ranking" and "good results" are not synonymous. We do not know if Google provides a fair ranking.
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not just whatever marketplace, anti-monopoly legislation focuses on markets where the players own a significant share of the full market. In the case of Amazon, it seems like they have above 52% of the e-commerce market in the US in 2019 ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/955796/global-amazon-e-c... ) so probably it's even higher now. When one player now has over half the market, you need to carefully watch w…
The standard for antitrust enforcement for decades has been when the action of a company harms consumers. How does Amazon harm consumers? I mean precisely, how? Amazon is one of the most highly rated companies in the US by its customers. Its NPS score is 69 and 70 is considered "world class". I can get almost anything online shipped to my house the SAME DAY. If Amazon sends you the wrong item they'll let you keep the…
Amazon regularly carries out malpractice by flouting federal regulations as described at https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/amazon-i...
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#107Given the volume and profitably of tech trading by members of Congress (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26821601 ) I have ZERO confidence that any useful legislation will come of it. It will just be a bunch of earnest and disingenuous theatre by the very people profiting from a bunch of companies who make Microsoft circa 1995 look like a kitten. For my part, I think the fundamental business model of profitin…
They could just as easily profit from shorting tech etc. True whales make money on the up and down.
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#108> potentially barring companies like Amazon.com from operating the markets in which they also compete Absolutely bananas that this haven't been fixed yet! How can Google own the entire ads market and still be allowed to compete in it? Obviously for-profit companies will abuse their positions if it'll earn them more money, and fines ends up being the cost of doing business instead of deterrents. How is Apple allowed t…
> How is Apple allowed to disallow any other web browsers on their mobile devices? We already went through this with Microsoft in the past but suddenly it's different?
Microsoft is a monopoly, Apple is not. Microsoft compelled their hardware partners to not do business with competitors, Apple is vertical regards to hardware.
While I like protocols and interoperability, it’s hard to achieve that through antitrust laws because antitrust focuses on consumer harm and without monopoly power that’s hard to show. I’m trying to think of any anti-trust for non-monopolies or threat of monopoly and can’t.
Should my NAS have to include third party browsers just because they have a browser?
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're pitching the prevention of certain competitive products as a good thing, which it may have been for Apple, but it is absolutely not for the consumer.
You think so? So please elaborate on how having your platform marginalized to a mere window decoration around the ubiquitous, 100% dominant UI toolkit (Crome) is better for the consumer. Besides, there’s plenty of choice on the market, unless you want to complain about a car manufacturer selling only their own models...
Platforms should disappear into the background. The great benefit of the web is that it presents roughly the same UI everywhere across all manner of devices and browsers. (The big downside of course is that it's not exactly the same).
> car manufacturer selling only their own models...
My car doesn't tell me who or what it's willing to transport. Yet.
Re: U.S. House committee approves blueprint for Big Tech crackdown
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
And Amazon. And Microsoft. And Apple. And Netflix. And every other conglomerate...
One is unlike the others. You're probably looking at Facebook, Oracle. Netflix is a small fish.
I'm open to discussion. My inclusion of Netflix is based upon their ownership of content and distribution, last mile excluded. Which reminds me to mention: Comcast, and co, as well as the mobile carrier companies for inclusion. I'd definitely agree that Oracle should face more scrutiny but don't know enough about their business to say much besides the fact that they're starting to look like Yahoo and IBM. Facebook is a given.