[bestbits] [governance] Platform competition

[Mawaki Chango]

Oh I see... So because it takes time for the fullness of a new reality to
emerge, and even more time for the not-so-quickly-evolving human mind to
grasp that new reality, the naysayers (or status-quoers) would tell us:
"you guys just can't get it!" (the almighty technology, that is)... so
"forget it!... you're just messing things up."... Or "you're being
'ringard'! (all the contrary of 'avant-gardist'... being 'arriere-gardist'
in other words), etc. etc.

True, if it ain't broke don't fix it... Question is, who gets to say it's
broke or it ain't? Because all reality is human reality, or it isn't. So
goes authority.
;)

Thanks, Ian for sharing.

Hasta la vista,
Mawaki


On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 8:53 PM, Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com> wrote:

>    Just a bit more on this reading on -
>
> Wikipedia provides a good article and other examples of two-sided markets
> here
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-sided_market
>
> which helps to clarify the issues.
>
> Another quote
>
> One takeaway from Tirole's work on regulation in general is that to a
> greater extent than people appreciate, policy problems sometimes exist
> because *the questions are genuinely difficult* rather than because
> policymakers are corrupt or feckless.
>
>
>  And it seems that one reason why the questions are genuinely difficult
> is that regulatory regimes were written in an era where such problems did
> not really exist.  We don't have laws which are applicable. And often we
> don't have legislators who understand the nature of the problems. (and,
> sure, we don't have the will to introduce new laws or amend them either).
>
> Ian
>
>
>
>
>  *From:* Ian Peter <ian.peter at ianpeter.com>
> *Sent:* Thursday, October 16, 2014 7:01 AM
> *To:* governance at lists.igcaucus.org ; bestbits at lists.bestbits.net
> *Subject:* [governance] Platform competition
>
>   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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