Should Amazon, Google, Apple, And Facebook Be Regulated

If you want increased competition they should

At what point should we consider a technology company too big? This is a question being asked by the FTC, EU, Congress, and states attorneys general. And who are their targets, see if you can guess?

You would be right if you said Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook. These companies are the prime targets of anti-trust investigations, and for good reason.

I don’t think the big 4 that are listed here should come as a surprise to anyone. Take Amazon for example. Amazon has single-handedly destroyed the brick and mortar retail industry, especially when it comes to mom and pop stores.

It is difficult, if not impossible for a small family-owned retail business to thrive with the likes of a behemoth like Amazon looming over them. They can’t compete on price or selection of goods the way that Amazon can all because of its size.

The remaining larger chain stores, with the possible exception of Walmart, have not been immune to Amazon either. Many of them have had to close locations while expanding their online presence just to survive. Think Best Buy and Target as two examples.

Amazon books signaled the end to many independent and chain book stores. Yes, Barnes and Noble still exist, but how much longer can they continue to fend off Amazon. We’ve seen their store count shrink drastically, they are hardly competitive in the eReader/tablet market because of the Kindle, and their inventory of books comes nowhere close to that of Amazon.

Then the pandemic hit and that put the final nail in the coffins of many small retailers. Look around at the malls that have closed, the storefronts that are boarded up, and the jobs that were lost because of it and you can easily see where Amazon was complicit in their demise.

Unfortunately, all this wasn’t enough for them. Now we have Amazon Pharmacy. How long do you think it will take for the remaining independent pharmacies to close and for the major pharmacy chains to have to close locations just to remain profitable? My guess would be that it probably won’t take long.

Of course, these aren’t the only businesses that Amazon owns. They also own Zappos.com which is a footwear and apparel retailer (more competition for the brick and mortar retail industry), Whole Foods which is an organic grocery retail chain, PillPack which is an online pharmacy that has been integrated into Amazon Pharmacy, and Twitch which is a live-streaming video service that is big with gamers.

Then in May 2021 Amazon agreed to purchase MGM Holdings, Inc. for $8.5 billion. MGM is in the TV and film production and distribution industry, and within its massive media catalog, owns the rights to two of the biggest film franchises in history, James Bond and Rocky. The acquisition is currently under review by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

You can see how this one company has changed the retail landscape forever and I’m not certain that it has been in a good way. No one corporation should wield such absolute power in any one market to the detriment of everyone else., but that is just what is happening with Amazon.

Although this article primarily focuses on Amazon, the other three corporations are not without blame.

Google is being investigated by the various regulatory bodies for its control of the online advertising industry, their Google Play Store practices, their search practices, and for its collection, use, and sale of harvested personal data. Apple is under investigation for its app store practices. While Facebook is facing scrutiny for its advertising practices, for their collection, use, and sale of personal data, and for their acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram.

When you look at any of these companies, you can’t help but see that they are crushing their competition. In spite of this, the average consumer is willing to overlook the reach of these companies simply because of price, convenience, and especially in the case of Google and Facebook, the freebees that we get for giving them our information. Gmail is a good example of a free service that is offered just for setting up a Google account. If you are like the majority of people out there, you probably have one too (me included) which means we are feeding the data harvesting machines that are Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook.

Although it is difficult, I have been trying to make purchases from retailers other than Amazon, I don’t use Facebook since I hate the cesspool it has become, and I stopped using Chrome, Google Maps, and any of Google’s other services unless absolutely necessary. Converting from Gmail to another service will be challenging, but it is something I will address in the near future.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t like being controlled by big tech. We too willingly give ourselves away for the conveniences they offer while getting far less in return compared to what we give, — our data.

If any of this is going to change it’s going to be up to you and me to force them to change by limiting our consumption of their products. By doing this, along with sensible regulation, we stand a chance of undoing some of the damage they have done. While opening up the markets to greater competition.

If we don’t force these entities to change, then we are setting ourselves up to be controlled by a real-life version of the Umbrella Corporation (reference from the Resident Evil movie franchise), and trust me, no one would like that.

How do you feel about the power of these 4 big tech companies, I’d love to know?

Until next time…