41–50 of 114 posts
What about Steam? They control 90% of PC gaming and even charge regressive commissions, with higher rates for smaller developers.
It seems the time has arrived for each country where international services have a market presence to have regulators who regulate how they operate in country. It makes little sense that US or Chinese laws or customs should be applied world-wide. Countries should exercise their own rights and not cede them to corporations who are voracious for profit and occasionally dabble in cultural imperialism and quite frequentl…
South Korea has been regulating its Internet with an iron fist for a long time, with dubious results. For many years, IE was de facto the only browser because the only authorized sign-in method for govt services relied on an ActiveX plugin, and to this date the functionality of eg Google Maps in Korea is crippled because laws regulating maps force all map data and associated services to be in Korea.
The EU is requiring this, though it EU wide, Russia, and China when it allows them to operate at all.
Coca-cola needs to follow local laws, so why should Facebook or Google etc. be exempt?
Based on South Korean parliament records, the amendment bans app store operators with dominant market positions from forcing payment systems on content providers and "inappropriately" delaying the review of, or deleting, mobile contents from app markets. It also allows the South Korean government to require an app market operator to "prevent damage to users and protect the rights and interests of users", probe app ma…
It's clear the days of this oligopoly operating unchallanged are numbered. I dont know a single person outside of the SV bubble who is buying 'mah free market!' argument so prevalent here.
Funnily enough, South Korea is a country essentially full of monopolies almost as large as the state.
It seems the time has arrived for each country where international services have a market presence to have regulators who regulate how they operate in country. It makes little sense that US or Chinese laws or customs should be applied world-wide. Countries should exercise their own rights and not cede them to corporations who are voracious for profit and occasionally dabble in cultural imperialism and quite frequentl…
This is technically how it has always been, but tech companies try to employ tricks to avoid it, like claiming it's too hard to comply with individual national or state laws. Another exciting prospect for harmful companies is to enshrine the laws they want in place as a treaty that countries can't easily legislate around: That's what the Trans-Pacific Partnership was about. When you see a massive trade treaty, you'll…
This is a move on the right direction, and is better than nothing. However, I think that a better move is to force HW platforms (maybe starting at a certain magnitude) to let the users use any software market they desire. This way Apple and Google can continue forcing the apps on their own markets to use their payment systems and "keep the users safe", while the other markets can do whatever they like
What does HW mean here? Handheld Wearable? Would that mean letting e.g. Sony PS5 devices allow homebrew markets to be used legally on their consoles? That would be awesome for the consumers.
I didn't mean firmware. This sounds like an interesting discussion for another day...
I don't know if it's still the case but last I was in SK, there were no walking directions on Google Maps. My understanding was that Google was prohibited to incorporate this in order to favor local competitors.
"Following the Korean War, the Spatial Data Industry Promotion Act and the Promotion of Military Bases and Installations Act were put in place to bar the export of map data outside the country. This is presumably to prevent sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands, especially given the hostility from north of the DMZ. Inevitably, however, the national security measure also has the effect of limiting foreign companies’ presence in online mapping and navigation.
Google stores its maps on foreign servers and therefore has not been allowed access to South Korea’s map data. In 2016, South Korean officials offered to hand their country’s map data over to Google under the condition that the tech company reduce map resolutions for important landmarks like military outposts and government offices. Google turned down the offer. So, streets and buildings remain low-resolution online and on the app.
These restrictions apply to Apple Maps as well. Its mapping services are even more rudimentary."
What about Steam? They control 90% of PC gaming and even charge regressive commissions, with higher rates for smaller developers.
Do they really control 90%? This four year old article puts Steam game sales revenue at 13% of the total PC gaming sales revenue (and 18% of digital sales revenue): https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-revenue-2017 Couldn't find any newer stats, but surely it hasn't grown from 13% to 90% in just four years?
Where's all the rest of the money supposedly going through?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's clear the days of this oligopoly operating unchallanged are numbered. I dont know a single person outside of the SV bubble who is buying 'mah free market!' argument so prevalent here.
> It's clear the days of this oligopoly operating unchallanged are numbered. Funnily enough, South Korea is a country essentially full of monopolies almost as large as the state.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's clear the days of this oligopoly operating unchallanged are numbered. I dont know a single person outside of the SV bubble who is buying 'mah free market!' argument so prevalent here.
> I dont know a single person outside of the SV bubble who is buying 'mah free market!' argument so prevalent here. Most of the arguments I've seen here, that you are probably classifying under this aspersion, are probably some variant on: - This doesn't look illegal under current (US) laws - New laws to restrict this are hard to write constitutionally (in the US) - If this happens a lot of the good parts of the ecos…
For some people at the time, it was obvious this was an unfair advantage on the market, so they fought to make it illegal.
It's the same now. Of course Google and Apple mostly respect the laws of the land, but if a large swath of the population/industry thinks they are unfair, their position will soon become illegal as well.