German minister considers breaking up Google

Taranis said:
It depends on the position of the company in the market. If they dominate and are not allowing much competition by abusing their position or stifling growth then they get sanctions. Look at Microsoft bundling IE with Windows. No company was able to even enter the browser market. Netscape went under as a result. As I said before, you end up with a bad product when there is no incentive to improve it.
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I don't see how they are doing that, there is absolutely nothing to stop competitors coming in, if they become the most popular then they will appear at the top of the search results, if Google supplied useless search results for the sake of placing their products first they would lose users. And Microsoft's plan backfired when they became complacent and shipped ****ty products, most monopolies where there is little to no entry barriers do not last long if superior products come along.
 
semaphore said:
So you're saying the Americans should have forced them to split up before this minister opened his mouth?
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No I am saying that governments shouldn't say anything about splitting up companies or matters of competition unless the government gave the company an advantage in the first place - like SAA and Telkom.
However I take less offence at the German minister opening his mouth than an American DoJ official because at least the German minister is adhering to known consistent and rational (even if wrong) German thinking on the subject - Google knew this sort of thing would happen with Germany when they decided to open up shop in Germany and have no doubt had their lawyers preparing for it for a while.
 
Paul Hjul said:
No I am saying that governments shouldn't say anything about splitting up companies or matters of competition unless the government gave the company an advantage in the first place - like SAA and Telkom.
However I take less offence at the German minister opening his mouth than an American DoJ official because at least the German minister is adhering to known consistent and rational (even if wrong) German thinking on the subject - Google knew this sort of thing would happen with Germany when they decided to open up shop in Germany and have no doubt had their lawyers preparing for it for a while.
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Ah okay.

Well i hope google give them the middle finger.
 
Syphonx said:
I don't see how they are doing that, there is absolutely nothing to stop competitors coming in, if they become the most popular then they will appear at the top of the search results, if Google supplied useless search results for the sake of placing their products first they would lose users. And Microsoft's plan backfired when they became complacent and shipped ****ty products, most monopolies where there is little to no entry barriers do not last long if superior products come along.
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It is undoubtable that Google's conduct is "harming" competitors such that same enterprises are loosing revenue because of Google's moves in the market. Why is that a problem their competitors with deep pockets can undercut Google. As long as there is no coercion or fraud monopolies only survive as long as the supplier preserves an air of superiority - ask IBM, Microsoft and hundreds of other companies that have tried and failed.
 
Paul Hjul said:
It is undoubtable that Google's conduct is "harming" competitors such that same enterprises are loosing revenue because of Google's moves in the market. Why is that a problem their competitors with deep pockets can undercut Google. As long as there is no coercion or fraud monopolies only survive as long as the supplier preserves an air of superiority - ask IBM, Microsoft and hundreds of other companies that have tried and failed.
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That's my point, barriers to entry are very low for what Google offers, they simply can't abuse the market in any significant way or become complacent because their is always someone with a great idea waiting to take over.
 
Syphonx said:
That's my point, barriers to entry are very low for what Google offers, they simply can't abuse the market in any significant way or become complacent because their is always someone with a great idea waiting to take over.
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In the medium to long run that is always the case in a free market though - so long as barriers to entry are purely of a capital nature any incumbent in the market must always expect competition because the moment the profits start outweighing risks capital will flow towards one or more competitor.
 
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