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Google should be broken up, say European MPs

bbc.com

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Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#41

Post by xtrumanx »

agd wrote: post #7

> Google has around 90% market share for search in Europe It's a complete monopoly and the barrier to entry is huge. Might be a good thing to break them up.

Quick (and perhaps stupid) question; how is Google a monopoly?

There are other alternatives to search available. If people really wanted to, they could use Bing. It's not like Google is using some horrendous anti-competitive practices to prevent other search engines from gaining market share.

Two characteristics of monopolies (as per wikipedia) are "High barriers" and "Single seller" both of which don't apply to Google in my opinion.

Google does have an absurd market share but that's mostly due to a good product. Why should they be punished for producing a quality product?

Some of the complaints listed in the article don't even make sense to me. Why is it a problem that Google has exclusivity to sell advertising on its own website? It's their website!

Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#42

Post by matthewmacleod »

rtpg wrote: post #30

I know a lot of people kind of scoff at the idea of breaking up Google because they happen to offer the best product, but here are the 4 points mentioned >The manner in which Google displays its own vertical search services compared with other, competing products > How Google copies content from other websites - such as restaurant reviews - to include within its own services > The exclusivity Google has to sell adver…

First point is kind of hard to fight in my opinion, since a company has the right to publish its own services.

That changes once a company becomes a monopoly, specifically because it leads to market distortion. We've got rules against this sort of thing for a reason…

Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#44

Post by anon1385 »

xtrumanx wrote: post #41
agd wrote: post #7

> Google has around 90% market share for search in Europe It's a complete monopoly and the barrier to entry is huge. Might be a good thing to break them up.

Quick (and perhaps stupid) question; how is Google a monopoly? There are other alternatives to search available. If people really wanted to, they could use Bing. It's not like Google is using some horrendous anti-competitive practices to prevent other search engines from gaining market share. Two characteristics of monopolies (as per wikipedia) are "High barriers" and "Single seller" both of which don't apply to Goog…

What is the alternative to Google Adwords, that has anything like the same reach?

Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#45

Post by Dewie »

Donzo wrote: post #8

Not that it'd ever happen, but I would very much enjoy watching what would unfold if Google ceased to provide services to these nations. Can you imagine the backlash?

I seem to remember that I used Altavista before google.com. I guess I would move on to another search engine. DuckDuckGo might be good enough, I guess, and there's also Bing (I guess DDGo uses Bing?). Most people would use whatever search engine that the browser than defaulted to. Maybe they'd still find what they want.

People would have to find other video sites to procrastinate and entertain themselves than YouTube. I don't know if there are any video sites which are competitive when it comes to providing content compared to YouTube. If so I guess people would go back more to professionally made entertainment (yes, of course not all or perhaps even most of YouTube is amateur).

People would replace Google+ with... oh that one doesn't matter.

Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#46

Post by netheril96 »

harperlee wrote: post #4

I don't know a lot about the requirements of these operations; how can the European Union guarantee that each Subgoogle does not agree with the rest to provide services to each other that I can't access to? I don't see how they can enforce that any company can be playing a level field against another subgoogle competitor...

If Google is broken into parts, then each parts will be owned and operated by different people, and different people will have different interests. In addition, people generally don't willingly cede their power for the common good. That is why they will probably not cooperate.

Of course, your imagined scenario could totally happen. But I think the opposite is more likely.

Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#47

Post by datashovel »

I kind of feel sorry for Europe, that their leaders can't see the enormous positive impact Google is having on the world.

And in general I hate behemoth corporations. Google is different. The moment they start behaving like other Fortune 100 companies is the moment I stop rooting for them.

There are still too many complacent monopolies in the world to break up Google. Unfortunately Google is the only one with the money and the balls to fight them.

Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#48

Post by matthewmacleod »

vixen99 wrote: post #39
matthewmacleod wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only real monopolies are those which are protected by government regulation or control. This is utter, objective nonsense. Look at Microsoft as a case in point, which had a near 100% market share of desktop operating systems. Nobody would claim that wasn't a monopoly. Google is out there on the freewheeling internet competing. It has a broad portfolio of products, but their main revenue stream - ads from search e…

You mean the unelected officials who decide these matters in non-smoke filled rooms in an organisation that hasn't been passed by its own auditors in more than 13 years (a business would have been taken to court by now) and has a current black hole of £34 billion which has willy-nilly to be filled from national coffers - no questions asked. All irrelevant to the subject under discussion? I don't think so.

I'm sure it is relevant, and the EU has serious issues that need to be fixed. But that doesn't affect the question of whether or not Google has a monopoly which is causing market harm.

Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#49

Post by kjjw »

throwawayaway wrote: post #10

If they actually knew what they were talking about, they would be voting to decentralize the internet, not break Google up. I don't think trying to break up Microsoft or fine them for bundling internet explorer achieved a whole lot. They are looking at the problem the wrong way.

'Decentralising the internet', if considering the web as an important part of that, pretty much is an effort to break apart Google. Google is a centralised web made reality.

Re: Google should be broken up, say European MPs

#50

Post by arethuza »

oblio wrote: post #11
vince_refiti wrote: post #6

The European Union should be broken up.

When debating pro-against EU, we should never forget how pre-EU Europe looked like. We've been incredibly good at killing each other. I'd pick a huge beauracracy over arms races any day of the week.

I'm not sure I'd actually call the EU a "huge bureaucracy" - it has 33 thousand staff:

http://ec.europa.eu/civil_service/docs/hr_key_figures_en.pdf

That's about twice as much as the Scottish Government - which is for a much smaller population.

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