Facebook and Google Are Called Too Strong

Teknoku.me – The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Facebook and Google were too strong and dominated the digital advertising market. This condition is said to hurt market competition there.

According to CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli, Google and Facebook currently control about 80 percent of the digital advertising market share in the UK.

It is estimated that the market value held is up to £ 14 billion, and this is not an ideal situation for competition.

“When a company has too much economic power, it can create several distortions, first for competitors, second for consumers, and to some extent also has the potential to influence the course of politics,” Coscelli said.

Coscelli said, specifically, Google holds about 90 percent control of the UK’s £ 7.3 billion search ad market.

Meanwhile, Facebook currently has more than a 50 percent share of the internet advertising market (display ads) in the UK of 5.5 billion pounds.

“We would generally like to see a more competitive market with more diversity of players,” continued Coscelli.

Responding to this, a Facebook spokesperson said that advertisers are actually given the freedom to determine the platform they want to advertise their products on. For example in radio, television, print media, as well as online.

“In online advertising itself, we face competition from Google, Apple, Snap, Twitter, and Amazon, as well as newcomers like TikTok, which is keeping us on high alert,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

Setting up regulations

In December, the CMA said it plans to issue new rules to control anti-competitive behavior. Also, the regulation is aimed at giving Facebook, Google, and other technology giants more control over their data.

However, it is unlikely that the regulation will be released shortly, possibly until 2022.

Under surveillance

Google and Facebook are currently facing tight scrutiny from several authorities in the world. Previously, Google, based in Silicon Valley, California, was fined 1.28 billion pounds by the European Commission. The fine was imposed for Google blocking its competitors. Facebook too. The company is currently facing prosecution for being accused of taking illegal action by buying another company to reduce market competition.