Is Big Tech prioritising power over innovation
The Hindu
Lawmakers and regulators in the U.S., E.U., Australia and U.K. are going after Big Tech firms' anticompetitive practices. Last July, U.S. lawmakers probed Facebook’s Instagram acquisition, Apple’s App Store dominance, Google’s advertising practices and Amazon’s treatment of small sellers.
(Subscribe to our Today's Cache newsletter for a quick snapshot of top 5 tech stories. Click to subscribe for free.) A moment’s gaze at people’s digital lifestyle reveals how their online experience has become a function of roughly a dozen applications that are powered by a few large firms. Most people decide what to buy on Amazon app; connect with friends and family on Facebook; post pictures on Instagram and text contacts on WhatsApp; and search the web via Google. Apple users do most of this within iOS’ walled-garden ecosystem that rations apps only from its App Store. Taken together, these tech giants have a combined market value of $5 trillion and wield power over almost every single smartphone user’s digital life. In their early days, these apps and interfaces helped consumers transition into a digital life. But over the past decade, they’ve grown more powerful and influential. Take the case of Facebook when it bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. The acquisition was seen by some analysts as Facebook’s way of keeping competition at bay.More Related News