12/30/2023 0 Comments Snap raise competitors![]() ![]() ![]() They are well-known, high-tech names that increasingly compete with Google in what is largely a single, global digital market. The likeliest beneficiaries do not come from Europe at all. Instead, Google's bigger opponents including German publisher Axel Springer SPRGn.DE and other European media and telecom firms with more to gain from having it on the defensive. They see the EU’s action giving them a second chance, both in terms of business opportunities and the ability to attract fresh venture funding.īut Google’s woes are not likely to help Europe’s burgeoning start-up scene, in part because Google is an active funder and serial acquirer of young companies here, but also because most firms count on Google’s low-cost ads to fund their own services. This week’s crackdown on Google drew a chorus of cheers from a handful of start-up shopping sites that had filed complaints alleging Google excluded them from its search. That positions it well for the current shift, but puts it on uncertain ground as the EU starts to probe Android as well.ĮU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has said she wants a change in the “principle” underlying searches rather than a redesign of current Web pages or tweaks to algorithms by which Google ranks results.ĭuring the five-year inquiry leading to the accusations, Google agreed three times to settlement terms, only to be rebuffed by EU authorities who saw its proposed changes as too narrow or cosmetic. Working in Google’s favor is its control over Android, the software used to power more than 80 percent of all smartphones. It’s too early to say whether Google faces the same fate as the world moves beyond computers into the mobile Internet era. That created openings for Internet leaders Google, Facebook FB.O, Apple AAPL.O and AMZN.O to emerge. More likely, the EU will impose fines or set competitive restrictions on how Google features its own properties versus those of rivals, he said.īy contrast, Microsoft was accused of tying its web browser to its Windows software monopoly in a bid to dominate the emerging Web era and faced calls to be split in two in the course of legal battles stretching from 1998 to 2010. “We see little long-term risk to the business model from regulators,” Baird Equity Research analyst Colin Sebastian wrote in a note to investors. So far, nothing the EU proposed in its preliminary statement of objections suggests it is ready to force Google to change its business model, any hint of which would spook investors and be a threat to its ability to innovate and compete, analysts say. “Allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark,” Google said in a statement responding to the European Commission. Google readily acknowledges it is the most used search engine in Europe, but argues that people find information on the Internet via many avenues, including social media, mobile phone apps, shopping sites and by going directly to popular sites. ![]() “The concern is how broad does this investigation go?” asked Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter, who tracks Google. This, in turn, could renew politically charged debates over Google’s tax avoidance moved and privacy safeguards. ![]() In accusing Google of anti-competitive practices against rival shopping sites, the EU competition authority said it is continuing to investigate other areas, including alleged “web scraping” to copy content off of rival travel and local business review sites, and Google’s restrictive practices on advertising.Ī quick EU finding that Google has abused its market power by favoring its own shopping services at the expense of non-Google websites, could set a precedent for new charges over how it handles hotels, flights and other services, experts say. Whether or not the EU succeeds in branding Google a market-abusing monopolist in web search - a big if, given that the competition authority has yet to publish its exact charges - the Internet giant could be pinned down for years to come in regulatory procedures and legal appeals.Ī drawn-out process is likely to embolden existing and would-be interlopers to step up assaults on Google's wide range of businesses, if the history of Microsoft's MSFT.O antitrust battles with U.S. That appears to be the European Union's strategy to pursue Google GOOGL.O in a competition dispute by choosing to push a narrow set of charges around its shopping service, while opening another investigation of Google's Android mobile phone software. Google and European Union logos are seen in Sarajevo, in this Apphoto illustration. ![]()
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