Re:Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop ...
by Const-me on Friday January 29, 2021 @12:09AM
(#25954214)
> Facebook obviously isn’t a natural monopoly
Why not?
It fits the definition from the article. “An industry in which high infrastructural costs and other barriers to entry give the largest supplier in an industry an overwhelming advantage over potential competitors”
In case of FB the infrastructural cost is less of an issue, at least not anymore. I think Amazon and Microsoft are capable of hosting at least a dozen Facebooks each on their clouds should they want to. The main barrier to entry which causes that overwhelming advantage is network effect.
Re:Facebook shuts popular stock trading group amid GameStop ...
by JumpCrisscross on Friday January 29, 2021 @01:17AM
(#25954625)
Natural monopolies don't have to continuously buy up emerging competitors. Facebook's network effects are strong. But they aren't insurmountable.
I don’t think Facebook should have shut down WSB but that doesn’t make them a monopoly.
As for monopoly in general, there’s Tiktok, Snapchat. Clubhouse just raised a big round.
The blue facebook app is actually anything but a monopoly, as Instagram (a facebook property) gets much more enthusiasm. There’s no “natural” monopoly for Facebook blue there.
It’s easy to pick a concept and try to apply it everywhere, but Facebook can act objectionally without being “a natural monopoly”.