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Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

theguardian.com

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Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#41

Post by fknorangesite »

dingaling wrote: post #20
aaronharnly wrote: post #10

> The regulator said Meta would be able to increase its “already significant market power” by cutting off the supply of gifs to rivals, or demand more user data from them in order to keep using Giphy. I’m imagining a future in which Meta cuts off the winter supply of GIFs to the European Union, setting the populace into a restive period of incoherent communication. Perhaps the EU, UK, and US should establish strategi…

Surely this is a market issue. Give it sufficient time and someone will work out how to wrap a derivative around GIFs.

I'm gonna orchestrate a gif pump and dump via /r/memeeconomy. I bet I could make almost $256.

Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#42

Post by groovybits »

rrdharan wrote: post #35

What’s funny is they’ll end up selling it to some IAC-type conglomerate with a huge data brokering business, and far poorer security and privacy practices, but which will escape the eye of lazy regulators who will keep looking to target splashy American brand names to score political points.

> far poorer security and privacy practices

Poorer than Meta? Is that even possible?

Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#44

Post by _aavaa_ »

beckingz wrote: post #39
shubhamjain wrote: post #32

At first I thought Giphy might have been a UK company, but no. It's an American company founded in New York. Ignoring the merits of the judgement—ridiculous as they are—does no one sense terrible outreach in issuing a ruling on a merger about two companies which are in no way related to the country issuing it? This has terrible repercussions for the American tech economy. Every big tech company would think twice befo…

So the repercussions are more competition and less large companies buying smaller companies and running them into the ground?

No, the repercussion is that a country other than America is deciding whether or not one American company is allowed to buy another American company.

Then replace America which the country name of your choosing.

Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#45

Post by beardyw »

shubhamjain wrote: post #32

At first I thought Giphy might have been a UK company, but no. It's an American company founded in New York. Ignoring the merits of the judgement—ridiculous as they are—does no one sense terrible outreach in issuing a ruling on a merger about two companies which are in no way related to the country issuing it? This has terrible repercussions for the American tech economy. Every big tech company would think twice befo…

I think by "big company" you probably mean those who do business in other countries. Doing business in other countries requires you to be subject to the decisions of they make if you want to do business there. I think if neither was doing business in the UK (I can only dream) there would be no case to answer.

Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#46

Post by tfsh »

groovybits wrote: post #42
rrdharan wrote: post #35

What’s funny is they’ll end up selling it to some IAC-type conglomerate with a huge data brokering business, and far poorer security and privacy practices, but which will escape the eye of lazy regulators who will keep looking to target splashy American brand names to score political points.

> far poorer security and privacy practices Poorer than Meta? Is that even possible?

> poorer security. likely so, Meta does have thousands of competent engineers, ensuring their data remains exactly where they want it to be

Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#47

Post by rchaud »

shubhamjain wrote: post #32

At first I thought Giphy might have been a UK company, but no. It's an American company founded in New York. Ignoring the merits of the judgement—ridiculous as they are—does no one sense terrible outreach in issuing a ruling on a merger about two companies which are in no way related to the country issuing it? This has terrible repercussions for the American tech economy. Every big tech company would think twice befo…

I take it you've read the judgement in full and are familiar enough with EU competition laws to dismiss the evidentiary basis of the court's findings /s

This has no more repercussions for "American tech" than any other US company that has a business and tax presence in the EU. The EU has previously ordered Microsoft to sell Windows without Windows Media Player in EU markets. Yet Facebook still saw fit to open an office there.

Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#48

Post by simiones »

i_have_an_idea wrote: post #26
somehnacct3757 wrote: post #9

It's funny that digital billboard space is the main reason they cite. To me the much bigger threat was that Giphy had integrations into many other chat and messaging apps which Facebook also competes with. Buying Giphy gave them new insight into competitor usage. Facebook could see which chat apps you were using and who you were talking to on them. All they had to do was fingerprint the gifs you sent to your friends

you know they can already buy that data from ad networks, right?

What do ad networks have to do with the messengers I use? Few if any messenger apps actually sell ad space inside the app.

Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#49

Post by lopis »

_aavaa_ wrote: post #44
beckingz wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the repercussions are more competition and less large companies buying smaller companies and running them into the ground?

No, the repercussion is that a country other than America is deciding whether or not one American company is allowed to buy another American company. Then replace America which the country name of your choosing.

These companies operate int he UK and in the EU. Naturally, they must follow local laws and abide to local rulings, otherwise they are not allowed to operate. This is nothing new. GDPR is mandatory to all American companies that want to operate in the EU as well. What's the confusion?

Re: Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

#50

Post by robertlagrant »

tjpnz wrote: post #28
robertlagrant wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they can just ban advertisers from buying any ad space on there So for example, Apple US couldn't buy ads on Facebook, because it shows ads to UK users? How do you envisage this working?

The idea would be to prevent UK residents from purchasing ads or other products and services from Meta. There are various ways of enforcing that.

> FB could still provide a service in the UK but it wouldn't make them any money.

I was replying to this. If they can still show non-UK ads to UK residents then they can still make money.

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