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A comment on Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play Store. Parent comment

Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by conradev on Saturday January 30, 2021 @09:46AM (#25969473)
Google has no (competitive) horse in the messenger race, so while that theory might fit your ideological point of view, I don’t understand why Google itself would have any incentive (or grounds) to remove an open source chat app.

How is Matrix a threat to Google?

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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by zaroth on Saturday January 30, 2021 @10:45AM (#25969957)
Google counts up every minute users spend using their electronic devices.

In their world view, every single minute per day spent looking at screens that don’t have Google ad targeting is a minute that a competitor is stealing value from Google.

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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by johbjo on Saturday January 30, 2021 @12:36PM (#25971046)
> How is Matrix a threat to Google?

A matrix user identity will eventually compete with a google account.

When google accounts are considered as important as myspace accounts, then much of their surveillance loses relevance.

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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by eganist on Saturday January 30, 2021 @09:53AM (#25969526)
> How is Matrix a threat to Google?

Conjecture on my part: it's a threat to the ad spend Google gets from Facebook.

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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by conradev on Saturday January 30, 2021 @10:00AM (#25969586)
Facebook (24%) and Google (32%) compete pretty intensely for mobile ad spend. While we don’t know how much Facebook uses Google ads, that theory isn’t particularly satisfying because they compete so intensely.

https://www.fastcompany.com/4032442/its-still-pi-day-so-we-d...

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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by eganist on Saturday January 30, 2021 @10:58AM (#25970062)
> Facebook (24%) and Google (32%) compete pretty intensely for mobile ad spend. While we don’t know how much Facebook uses Google ads, that theory isn’t particularly satisfying because they compete so intensely.

And yet...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/technology/google-faceboo...

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Re:Element (Matrix chat app) suspended from the Google Play ... by anticensor on Saturday January 30, 2021 @11:37PM (#25976003)
Discord, a huge chat software, is hosted on Google Cloud. This might help explain why they tried to kill Element, a client for Matrix, a competing chat software with similar targeted user base.
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