http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/03/BUBB1DONJ2.DTL&type=tech
Summary:
This article talks about a case by Watchdog against Google Inc. Watchdog states that Google is abusing their market share dominance, however Google states that their practices are designed to benefit users. Google doubled its market share in online video to nearly 80 percent since 2007. A report states that after Google put the Google Map in, the market share for onetime leader MapQuest has dropped from 57% to 32% and now Google controls 51% of the market share. Google stated that, the reason for MapQuest’s downfall was because they did not add features such as street view or bike directions while Google did.
Connection:
The connection between chapter 10 and this article is that the article talks about Google becoming a monopoly. Monopoly is when there is only one company for that industry. However, you may be considered a monopoly when you have obtained control in many industries, for example like how Boeing did back then. For this case, Google took over several industries, such as Google Map or Google Finance. Google may not have total control in each and every one of these industries, but they possess so many that it makes them a monopoly, similar to Microsoft.
Reflection:
I think that Google has earned its right to achieve monopoly. They did not abuse their powers and forced us to use their site. We chose to use Google Map when we need to plan a trip to some place we have never been to before. And it is also our choice that typing google.ca is more convenient than typing yahoo.ca. Also, it’s like a trend in fashion, when something’s hot, people talk about it. And that becomes their source of advertisement. Also, it is more convenient when you just have to access one website to obtain many different programs such as maps, emails, search engine, and finance.
Lately, I had heard that the social networking site, Facebook, became the most visited site in the world. Facebook is visited by 540 million different visitor and beat google.ca in market share. However, it only beat the search engine google, which did not include other sites affiliated with the company such as Youtube. Facebook is growing in popularity everyday, and an increase in online activities will pose a threat to Google. Google may not be able to keep its #1 spot, much less abusing its market share dominance. I think Google rightfully deserves number one because of its convenience and wide range of products.
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ReplyDeleteTo become a monopoly, the company must have little or nearly no competition at all. Due to this fact, I think google is more like a oligopoly for the many different functions that google has. For example, google's search engine is competing with yahoo's or google's gmail is competing microsoft's hotmail. Indeed, google has earned it's right to be number one and has great convenience for all it's users but I don't think it is yet considered a monopoly. Although, google can be considered on its way being dominating other companies with many but not all industries. But since google does not have completely control of these industries, I would not consider it a monopoly yet.
ReplyDeleteI don’t agree with Michael’s idea that branches of Google have become a monopoly in online mapping, video and comparison shopping industries. It is fairer to say that Google is the market dominant while other companies still possess at least 30% of the market share in their industries. In this case, I think Google is more in an oligopoly where several firms are dominating the market.I These industries are very concentrated. New firms have great barriers to enter these industries. I think the charges against Google should not stand because Google searching engine is an advantage to its other accessories like Google Maps or Google Finance. In addition, Google Maps provide users with bike route and street views. MapQuest and other business must immediately innovate new functions or else they won’t be able to retain their market share.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Google deserves a monopoly, but Jackie is correct, Google, in all of the different markets, is part of an Oligopoly. In comparison of E-mail services, there is Hotmail and Gmail, and Gmail is growing rapidly. In comparison of search engines, there is yahoo, google, bing, etc., and with Google's simple and efficient search engine, they have come to be on top. As for the fight against Google Maps and MapQuest, it was not the nicest thing to do to MapQuest, but Google knows how to play the competition game better, and MapQuest could not keep up.
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