[bestbits] Platform competition

[Ian Peter]

This is a highly interesting article about the work of Nobel Prize winning economist Jean Tirole and how the concept of platform competition relates to internet markets. It explains how Google and Facebook can make enormous profits and dominate markets while offering their products free of charge. Similar issues exist in some other industries, but this article concentrates on Internet.


http://www.vox.com/2014/10/13/6968423/jean-tirole-platform-competition

To quote “And an important question for the world going forward is to how to think about regulating that kind of market. Since Google doesn't charge its mass customer base anything at all, you're never going to find evidence of monopoly power in price hikes.”


As Mark Rotenberg comments, “The key insight is not no regulation but different regulation. This is also why competition law and privacy law need to be updated not ignored.”

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