Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It?

Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by omeid2 on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @11:17PM (#18558066)

I believe overreaching IP protection laws, specifically in regards to patents and copyright are in large to blame for creation of these monopolies. In tech, one of the largest hurdles is patent wars, where the player with the biggest pockets and arsenal screws over little players just about all the time. So the assertion that the lack of state intervention is to blame for formation of these monopolies is perhaps true, but in a different light.

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Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by jerkstate on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @11:42PM (#18558153)

IP laws? The algorithm behind PageRank was published in Larry and Sergey's dissertation. Amazon started as an online bookstore. Facebook was not the first social network by a long shot.

I think IP laws and patent wars are a lot more salient when it comes to hardware (like Apple, Samsung, Motorola, etc), less so for those 3 examples.

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Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by Eridrus on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @11:43PM (#18558158)

While I think copyright was a very relevant law when selling boxed products, it's less clear that copyright is the relevant law in the age of SaaS. I think trade secrets law is much more relevant these days.

And in any case, many tech giants exist around natural monopolies, either in network effects, either obvious ones, or those from two sided marketplaces or simply economies of scale.

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Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by freedomben on Thursday November 29, 2018 @01:46AM (#18558542)

> many tech giants exist around natural monopolies, either in network effects

Yes, network effect is a huge part of the problem. So much in tech requires user adoption, and typically users won't adopt until others adopt, thus creating chicken and egg problem. Overcoming the network effect is extremely difficult, as we've seen from competing platforms trying to unseat facebook and twitter (tho network effect is not limited to social networks, but they are the most obvious examples)

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Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by netheril96 on Thursday November 29, 2018 @02:08AM (#18558616)

China has had very little protection of IP, and until recently the government never intervened in the IT industry, yet monopolies like Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent still arise.

In fact, many people in China attributes Tencent's growth to its shameless copying of other people and companies' work and products. If that kind of view is true, than China's monopoly comes out because of lack of IP protection.

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Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by nappy on Thursday November 29, 2018 @02:22AM (#18558657)

The largest, most monopolistic companies in china are deeply wedded to the communist party and enjoy the protections afforded by this authoritarian regime.

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Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by 113 on Thursday November 29, 2018 @06:25AM (#18559453)

Only because they've bought their way into that position.

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Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by ummonk on Thursday November 29, 2018 @12:22AM (#18558291)

What copyright and patent benefits does Facebook enjoy that allows it to be the dominant social network? Or Google that allows it to be the dominant search engine, video platform, and email platform?

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Re:Competition Is Dying, and Taking Capitalism with It? by throwawayjava on Thursday November 29, 2018 @12:14AM (#18558271)

If this were true, then other large patent holders would be toe-for-toe in spaces like web advertising. Spoiler: they're not.

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