The Big Tech antitrust hearing, in which CEOs of Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Alphabet's Google will defend their companies' practices, is slated for July 29. Their testimony, released on Tuesday, makes the case that the companies in question do not represent a monopolistic force in the industry.
Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, stressed that the firm's "continued success is not guaranteed," as people now have many alternative ways to access information, and the market's dynamic is continuously evolving. He remarked:
"For example, people have more ways to search for information than ever before — and increasingly this is happening outside the context of only a search engine."
Jeff Bezos defended Amazon's behavior by stressing that the Seattle firm is a small part of the overall retail market, and competes with retailers like Walmart, which is twice its size. He added that coronavirus uplifted e-commerce business in general, and not just Amazon.
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg defended acquisitions made by the firm by mentioning that the firm competes with other companies present at the hearing and others globally. He stated that WhatsApp and Instagram, both of which are Facebook-owned, have grown after being acquired. He reiterated the firm's position on government regulation and called for "updated rules for the internet."
Apple's Tim Cook plans to tell the committee that the Cupertino firm “does not have a dominant market share in any market where we do business. That is not just true for the iPhone, it is true for any product category.” In his prepared testimony, he wrote that before the App Store was launched, software developers paid a hefty 50-70% fee to distribute their work, which has now been "vastly" lowered.
Source: Reuters
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