The Tale of a Monopoly:

by Russell Jin layout by Sophia Park

“Big Tech” has an undeniable presence in each of our lives. Monopolies in the technology industry, such as Google, Apple, or Amazon are lauded and praised for the products and services they provide. However, there is a darker side to the story—the very same companies that we idolize are surreptitiously abusing their power, and the mere existence of these tech monopolies have often had detrimental effects on society.

To understand their current dominance, it is essential to know their history. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. It initially started out as purely a search engine, and Eric Schmidt quickly took over the operations as it experienced rapid growth. Google gradually expanded to provide many different services such as Gmail, YouTube, and Google Meet, becoming the huge conglomerate it is today.

After the business gained traction, Google started acquiring startups, which allowed it to tap into more markets. Firstly, it acquired Android for $50 million in 2005, entering the operating system industry. In 2006, it took ownership of YouTube, purchasing it for $1.65 billion. This also enabled it to control a part of the social media market. However, Google’s most successful acquisition was DoubleClick, which they acquired for $3.1 billion in 2007. It is a service which allows advertisers to easily create and publicize their ad, as well as be provided with valuable analytics. Advertising remains Google’s most profitable source of revenue.

While the story of Google may be regarded as one about success, it also reveals a sinister fact—too much power will inevitably lead to corruption (this is quite ironic, considering how Google’s motto used to be “Don’t Be Evil”). A Wired article by Rory O’Connor states that Google was accused of unfairly using its dominance in search to promote their own products by antitrust regulators. Additionally, they were accused of collecting private online information using their Street View cars. The article goes as far as to say that Google may be facing an existential threat. In other words, the company may shut down in the future if such incidents continue. While this may not have been the case so far, Google continues to be inundated by lawsuits. On the 24th of January, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Google yet again for having “corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers and brokers to facilitate digital advertising.” In other words, Google has attempted to take complete control over the advertising industry using their power as a monopoly.

It is undeniable that the situation looks quite grim for Google, but the perspectives of consumers must also be considered. It is quite a quandary when such a company is accused of unethical practices. On one hand, continuing to use their products means one is willing to give up their privacy and rights. On the other hand, there are no other substitutes which provide the same quality. This leaves users in an inconvenient situation where there is no good choice. Hence, it appears that the optimal solution is for competitors to emerge and challenge the dominant power. Fortunately, some attempts are being made to compete against Google. For instance, the meteoric rise of ChatGPT proves to be quite a relevant threat. According to The Guardian, Google’s own AI, Bard, displayed inaccurate answers during a live demonstration, causing shares to drop drastically in value. This is in stark contrast to ChatGPT, which has been acclaimed as being “the best artificial intelligence chatbot ever released to the general public,” as stated by the New York Times. Moreover, Google’s competitor Microsoft announced that it would be using the technology behind ChatGPT to enhance Bing. All in all, monopolies can only be brought down by the emergence of superior products or services, which mitigates the cost of adjusting for customers.

In conclusion, these tech giants have a huge impact on society. Google, in particular, is a tech monopoly with unprecedented power and reach in many markets. However, it was revealed that their dominant grasp over the industry came with them abusing their power, which sheds light on a more iniquitous side of these companies. This ultimately displays the dangers of a monopoly, and reveals that there may be a fundamental flaw in capitalism which allows such monopolies to form and thrive.

The Scale of

Haven

Capitalism is an economic system in which there market, and is often synonymous with the concept of nations today have implemented a mainly capitalist sides. This piece draws attention to one such downside between the rich there is minimal governmental interference with the concept of a laissez-faire market. Although the majority capitalist system, capitalism is not without its downdownside of the capitalist system - the wealth disparity rich and the poor.