Fighting Big Tech

Big tech namely Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple practices throughout the years have been put under the microscope in a recent hearing in the USA focusing around anti-trust and anti-competitive behavior of these businesses in their respective spaces.

There have been many stories emerging about how difficult it is for many up and coming Tech startups to survive within the market due to the dominance of Big Tech and this according to them is only the tip of the iceberg of what they deem as very anti-competitive behavior on the part of Big Tech. One such example that was brought up during the hearing was how companies like Google who own the worlds most used and largest search engine extorted Yelp a popular review website for its content or risk being pulled down in the rankings in Google Search which can be a death sentence for any business considering Google Search makes up nearly all web searches in the world.

Another case that was brought up during the hearing was how Big players in the space like Facebook and Amazon employ predatory tactics such as copying features of their competitors. One such incident was when Facebook copied a popular feature introduced by Snapchat- Stories and incorporated that in their own competing service Instagram. There were also claims made that due to how massive Big Tech is and the resources they have it is nearly impossible for any competitors to last very long within the market and these smaller competitors end up being bought up by Big Tech as was the case for Instagram and Whatsapp that were bought by Facebook further consolidating their power.

Apple also came under scrutiny as they have been accused of being gatekeepers in terms of their control of what apps come in their app store. This at face value does not seem to be that much of an issue but when you consider the closed-ended nature of apple products and services it becomes apparent that its a problem as Apple control who's apps will be made available to their user bases and developers claim that the rules which they have to follow to make their apps eligible to be posted on the app store change arbitrarily without notice. This they claim is Apple strong-arming their control through the App-store.

Amazon makes up more than 70% of all online shopping in the USA and this dominance concerns regulators as many businesses claim that the Amazon has too much power over the success of their business in term of sales.

It is clear that Big Tech now more than ever faces the very real prospect of regulation because of the size and dominance they have achieved go against the open market principle that governs capitalism.