[kictanet] The Case Against Google and other Tech Titans

[Ali Hussein]

Listers

Here’s an interesting long read on the implications of Technology enabled Monopolies. 

The argument for and against the thesis that only market forces can check the monopolistic behaviors of the Tech Giants is well articulated in this NY Times article.

The argument goes like:-

A combination of Activists (Listers, I hope you are listening and reading 😀), Anti-Trust Busters, Competitors and the cautious actions of so called Monopolists when the spotlight hits them, is largely responsible for ensuring that consumers and the markets operate honestly, responsibly and with the profit motive in mind.

Couldn’t help me thinking whether this combination is partly responsible for the New Safaricom we are seeing today.  A company that is arguably larger than life in Kenya and who in the recent past has been accused of the same behaviors that the Tech Giants are allegedly guilty of. 

Safaricom is definitely a better company than it was just a few years before. They have embraced the ecosystem, released M-Pesa APIs on Github (Yes!), funds startups in the Tech Ecosystem through its Spark Fund and is generally easier to work with. 

Here’s an excerpt to the story:-

The implication is clear enough: Google and the other tech titans understand that the landscape is shifting. They realize that their halos have become tarnished, that the arguments they once invoked as a digital exception to American economic history — that the internet economy is uniquely self-correcting, because competition is only a click away — no longer hold as much weight. “When you get as big as Google, you become so powerful that the market bends around you,” ...

Read on:-

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/magazine/the-case-against-google.html

@Walu, we can meet half way on our arguments on this issue. :-)

Regards 

Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113 

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."  ~ Aristotle


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