IT Giants - Too big to be governed?

[methodical]

On 4/2/2018 at 6:13 PM, Landlord said:

 

 

I don't think this is true at all. First of all, Facebook is still the biggest social media platform by a landslide. In fact, if you include facebook, facebook messenger, whatsapp, and instagram as separate platforms, which are all facebook entities (and 4 of the top 10 biggest social platforms), there are well over four billion more active users than Snapchat.

 

Second, Facebook is already not the next MySpace. MySpace was a 4-5 year product that never innovated, and focused solely on the demographic of people using it's platform to connect socially. Facebook has already dominated for a decade, it's existence is essentially the reason Donald Trump is President (talk about power), and teenagers actually using the platform to connect with their friends is the last of their concerns. If you're right and 10 years from now Facebook goes the way of the dinosaurs, that's still a 20 year run of social domination the likes of which humanity hasn't seen. They're interested in ad revenue, integration into key services in the rest of your life (every single website has a 'login with facebook' and a 'share to facebook' option), and being a behind the scenes leader in future tech ventures like VR, "free" internet, machine learning algorithms, etc. 

 

VR has been the "Next big thing!" since the 90s.  It's not ever going to be the next big thing.  Augmented reality will have some interesting things but that's about it.

 

Machine learning is being developed by every major tech company.  But being scared of someone's potential future growth doesn't mean they are a monopoly now.

 

Frankly the Barrier to entry for all of these things is so low and there are so many competitors that other than traffic I don't see how you can think they are monopolies.  They are at the top because they are the best in their space.  Nothing is stopping you from using another search engine (other than it not being as good, most of the time) or another social network (or quitting altogether like everyone that doesn't care their extended acquaintances had for dinner or what their kids and pets are doing did after facebook went away from college addresses only) or another online retailer (shop around online, lots of times amazon isn't the best price and can be harder to sift through then specialized retailers, although sometimes prime shipping convenience pushes them over the edge and their return policy is better then most other online retailers were offering years ago).

 

Nothing is going to bring malls back.  Malls suck(ed).

 

I work in tech and have been involved on the internet since the early/mid 90s.  I don't have a problem with any of these companies other than the creepy amount of data they have on people.  Nothing is stopping something better from coming along.  Frankly other than amazon, all of them are less worrisome than Microsoft, still.  So I voted no on all of it.  If you want actual monopolies that need broken up and solved by making the last mile wholesale, try the cell phone companies and internet service providers/cable companies as that's where fear of oligopolies would be rightfully directed in America.

Edited April 6, 2018 by methodical

[TGHusker]

^^^ Good post @methodical

[BigRedBuster]

On 4/2/2018 at 6:13 PM, Landlord said:

I don't think this is true at all. First of all, Facebook is still the biggest social media platform by a landslide. In fact, if you include facebook, facebook messenger, whatsapp, and instagram as separate platforms, which are all facebook entities (and 4 of the top 10 biggest social platforms), there are well over four billion more active users than Snapchat.

 

My kids never used Facebook to communicate or whatever.  However, they all say "everyone needs a Facebook account".  Some people use it to keep in touch with people.  However, many many people use it as kind of a "phonebook".  If you need to find someone, you go to Facebook.  Many people even use it when they need to find contact information for a local business.  

[RedDenver]

 

Here's the NYT story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/us/politics/google-antitrust-justice-department.html

[Danny Bateman]