They are monopolies, plain and simple. It's unfortunate U.S. democracy is as dysfunctional as it is.
We can have a massive majority of people agree on something, but we can't get anything done on reigning in the two clearest forms of monopolistic behavior since steel and railroad barons.
There was a time when the U.S. stood up against these types of companies — so much so that the "fat cat banker" even became a trope in pop culture and film, such as in It's a Wonderful Life.
I hope we can get back to the notion of egalitarianism and supporting working Americans rather than the selfish pipe dream of becoming a billionaire so you can do whatever the fuck you want.
"These measures would bar major tech companies from recommending their own services and requiring developers to exclusively sell their apps on a company’s app store. "
In a way, sure, this is definitely a point for startups. But competing against giants the likes of Amazon and Apple will always be a mammoth task. There's a lot more than terms like these that goes into making a name for yourself and standing out in a crowded market.
Yes, of course. I think the objective of the new bill is to give greater bargaining power to startups (or rather, protection so they won't need to bargain terms like these in the first place). Which, will inevitably make it easier for new companies and products to flourish - I think it's definitely a step in the right direction in terms of innovation.
Ditto. Not only would it let more startups enter the market, it also serves to even the playing field. The article says "AICO would ban Amazon from favoring its own private-label products over those from independent sellers." - i.e. they'd have to compete on the same terms the rest of us do. No doubt they still have the marketing power to outperform the market, but at least they have to jump through the same hoops.
Security alone is the major reason for a closed system.
I don't think Apple is actually making much money (in terms of profit) by providing App Store. R&D and operating cost is actually up there. The developer fee I pay, I am pretty sure it cost Apple more to support my business.
Thanks for sharing! Both of the acts he mentioned (the Open App Markets Act and American Innovation and Choice Online Act) are really important — and particularly for indie hackers like us. I'm glad that you're bringing them to our attention.
If anyone wants to learn more, here's a solid article on the former and another article on the latter.
This quote from the AICO article says it pretty well:
“That’s how these guys stay big and relevant. If they can’t put their hand on the scale, then it makes them vulnerable to small and medium-size companies eating their market share.”
Google is getting out of hand now. They literally killing every small software business which becomes successful or make it to the news by launching alternative.
There should be limited on how many products can be launched by publicly traded company. I know US will not do it. Some Asian or European countries need to start such rule to control them.
Also on private brand, you can buy brands or private brands, that's consumer's choice. I go to grocery store and buy Coca Cola, I never buy private brands from grocery store. Why? because they are just not competitive enough (except price).
If you are a physical store, do you just sell 3rd party products or will you provide more choice to customers by offering better alternatives, either healthier, or cheaper or...
I think all middleman should be eliminated unless they are providing value. In terms of app store, these megatech are killing the middleman, reducing the cost for consumers. Laws won't be passed because it is helping consumers. It's just the little guys are not competitive (or are too greedy). Thing is, these megatech are using their power to built moats. The middleman just happen to be in the moats that megatech are now providing at much lower costs. It'll be an issue when they kill off all competitions and raise prices that consumers now have no choice. As of now, I don't see that happening, because that's not what those megatech are about (nor aligned with their business model).
While some people will be hurt, but overall consumers benefit from these practices.
These companies are like snowballs rolling down a hill, I don't think they will be able to limit their power in the foreseeable future, they got almost all the digital gold in circulation: data.
Google is probably way up there in terms of evil scale. Try writing any kind of "growth hack"-y tools using their APIs. Now they require any 3rd party apps to have security audit which costs you $10-150k.... plus you HAVE to go through one of the handful ( ithink 2 or 3) audit firms they appointed (hmm, smell corruption anyway) Jesus, what kind of startup can afford 6 figure security audit for a plugin that automates some gmail thing? I understand they're try to protect their users but what about "innovation is key" thing they keep beating into the media? Because of this small companies like Context io and EmailMonkey have shut down.
You got to understand why they got there. That's not caused by Google, but an response to what happened. What happened was some bad actors did abuse the platform, things blow up, laws were needed, and now Google has to comply...
Hello,
I do not totally agree with that statement about how https://www.perfumeplusoutlet.com/ google and amazon stifle competition but somehow you are telling a fine story.
They are monopolies, plain and simple. It's unfortunate U.S. democracy is as dysfunctional as it is.
We can have a massive majority of people agree on something, but we can't get anything done on reigning in the two clearest forms of monopolistic behavior since steel and railroad barons.
There was a time when the U.S. stood up against these types of companies — so much so that the "fat cat banker" even became a trope in pop culture and film, such as in It's a Wonderful Life.
I hope we can get back to the notion of egalitarianism and supporting working Americans rather than the selfish pipe dream of becoming a billionaire so you can do whatever the fuck you want.
"These measures would bar major tech companies from recommending their own services and requiring developers to exclusively sell their apps on a company’s app store. "
In a way, sure, this is definitely a point for startups. But competing against giants the likes of Amazon and Apple will always be a mammoth task. There's a lot more than terms like these that goes into making a name for yourself and standing out in a crowded market.
Yes, of course. I think the objective of the new bill is to give greater bargaining power to startups (or rather, protection so they won't need to bargain terms like these in the first place). Which, will inevitably make it easier for new companies and products to flourish - I think it's definitely a step in the right direction in terms of innovation.
Ditto. Not only would it let more startups enter the market, it also serves to even the playing field. The article says "AICO would ban Amazon from favoring its own private-label products over those from independent sellers." - i.e. they'd have to compete on the same terms the rest of us do. No doubt they still have the marketing power to outperform the market, but at least they have to jump through the same hoops.
Right - hopefully, we'll see greater innovation from the bigger players too this way!
Security alone is the major reason for a closed system.
I don't think Apple is actually making much money (in terms of profit) by providing App Store. R&D and operating cost is actually up there. The developer fee I pay, I am pretty sure it cost Apple more to support my business.
Thanks for sharing! Both of the acts he mentioned (the Open App Markets Act and American Innovation and Choice Online Act) are really important — and particularly for indie hackers like us. I'm glad that you're bringing them to our attention.
If anyone wants to learn more, here's a solid article on the former and another article on the latter.
This quote from the AICO article says it pretty well:
nice
Amazing thought
Google is getting out of hand now. They literally killing every small software business which becomes successful or make it to the news by launching alternative.
There should be limited on how many products can be launched by publicly traded company. I know US will not do it. Some Asian or European countries need to start such rule to control them.
Also on private brand, you can buy brands or private brands, that's consumer's choice. I go to grocery store and buy Coca Cola, I never buy private brands from grocery store. Why? because they are just not competitive enough (except price).
If you are a physical store, do you just sell 3rd party products or will you provide more choice to customers by offering better alternatives, either healthier, or cheaper or...
I think all middleman should be eliminated unless they are providing value. In terms of app store, these megatech are killing the middleman, reducing the cost for consumers. Laws won't be passed because it is helping consumers. It's just the little guys are not competitive (or are too greedy). Thing is, these megatech are using their power to built moats. The middleman just happen to be in the moats that megatech are now providing at much lower costs. It'll be an issue when they kill off all competitions and raise prices that consumers now have no choice. As of now, I don't see that happening, because that's not what those megatech are about (nor aligned with their business model).
While some people will be hurt, but overall consumers benefit from these practices.
These companies are like snowballs rolling down a hill, I don't think they will be able to limit their power in the foreseeable future, they got almost all the digital gold in circulation: data.
Google is probably way up there in terms of evil scale. Try writing any kind of "growth hack"-y tools using their APIs. Now they require any 3rd party apps to have security audit which costs you $10-150k.... plus you HAVE to go through one of the handful ( ithink 2 or 3) audit firms they appointed (hmm, smell corruption anyway) Jesus, what kind of startup can afford 6 figure security audit for a plugin that automates some gmail thing? I understand they're try to protect their users but what about "innovation is key" thing they keep beating into the media? Because of this small companies like Context io and EmailMonkey have shut down.
You got to understand why they got there. That's not caused by Google, but an response to what happened. What happened was some bad actors did abuse the platform, things blow up, laws were needed, and now Google has to comply...
Hello,
I do not totally agree with that statement about how https://www.perfumeplusoutlet.com/ google and amazon stifle competition but somehow you are telling a fine story.
This comment was deleted 3 months ago.