Re:Zuckerberg struggles to name a single Facebook competitor
by eesmith on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @02:01AM
(#16808433)
A monopoly determination is made on market power, not the existence of other people in the field.
If I start an advertising company which charges advertisers a blanket $1 per year, I don't affect FB's market power, because I don't have the same reach or same targeting capabilities.
Standard Oil's competitors might have been every other energy-provider company, but that doesn't detract from Standard Oil's market power in subsets of the energy-provider field.
Facebook's competitors might be every other advertiser, but that doesn't mean Facebook is immune from charges of abusing its market power.
If I start an advertising company which charges advertisers a blanket $1 per year, I don't affect FB's market power, because I don't have the same reach or same targeting capabilities.
Standard Oil's competitors might have been every other energy-provider company, but that doesn't detract from Standard Oil's market power in subsets of the energy-provider field.
Facebook's competitors might be every other advertiser, but that doesn't mean Facebook is immune from charges of abusing its market power.