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LAST WORD Internet Oligopolies A Few Big Companies Dominate the Internet-and Act as Highly Competitive Oligopolists The Internet only became accessible to the average person in the mid- 1990s. Over the past 10 years, it has evolved into a medium dominated by a few major firms. Chief among them are Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Other major players include Microsoft and Apple. A key characteristic of each of these firms is that it holds a near- monopoly in a particular part of the tech business. Google domi- nates search. Facebook holds sway in social networking. Amazon Be rules the roost in online shopping. Microsoft holds a near-monopoly on PC operating systems and business-productivity software. And Apple became the world's most valuable company in 2012 by way of being the planet's most profitable manufacturer of computers, You my Tube mobile phones, and tablets-all of which run on Apple's own operat- ing software. But instead of just trying to maintain dominance in its own sector, each of these Internet titans has used the profits generated by its own near-monopoly to try to steal business from one or more of the other Anatolii Babii/Alamy Stock Photo titans. The result has been intense oligopolistic competition among a few well-funded rivals. directing searches done on Apple devices to a proprietary search Consider search. Google's 63 percent share of the search market engine of Apple's own design. creates massive amounts of advertising revenue for Google. In fact, Apple's dominance in smartphones and tablets has also been Google's 2018 ad revenues of over $100 billion exceeded the ad reve- challenged by some of the other Internet titans. In addition to licens- nues received by all U.S. magazines and newspapers combined. So it ing the Android operating system to any manufacturer who wants to may not be surprising that Microsoft created its Bing search engine use it on their own cell phones or tablets, Google launched its own to compete with Google. As of late 2018, Bing held 24 percent of the line of Nexus mobile devices to compete with Apple's iPhone and search market. Along with Yahoo, which held 12 percent, Bing main- iPad. Also seeking to challenge Apple in mobile devices, Microsoft tains competitive pressure on Google, forcing ad rates lower. They in updated its Windows operating system to handle phones and tablets, fact fell by nearly 30 percent in 2018 launched its Surface line of tablets to compete with the iPad, and attempted to compete with the iPhone by marketing its own Win- Facebook is by far the largest social networking website, with dows Phone, which failed in the marketplace. more than 2.4 billion regular users. But in 2011, Google succeeded Microsoft pursued those initiatives because smartphone and tab- in creating a large enough social network to challenge Facebook, at let sales are rising rapidly while PC sales are falling quickly. So unless least temporarily. Google did so by encouraging the users of its vari- Microsoft can generate revenues from smartphones, tablets, or ous free services-such as Gmail and YouTube-to join the Google+ search, it will suffer an inexorable decline as the PC sector continues social network. By late 2012, Google+ had 500 million total users to shrink. and 235 million regular users-enough to compete credibly with Amazon has also made forays outside the online retail sector that Facebook. Unfortunately for Google, growth later stalled and it dominates. The foray best known to the general public is its Kindle Google opted to shut down most of Google+ in 2018 after a major line of tablet computers, which compete directly with the tablets data breach. made by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and the various manufacturers Google+ was important to Google because Facebook had been that utilize Google's Android operating system. But behind the encouraging advertisers to switch from using Google search ads to scenes, Amazon has also become a major competitor to Google and using Facebook banner ads that could be targeted at specific types of Microsoft in providing businesses with online "cloud computing" ser- vices that run on the massive servers that Amazon, Google, and Facebook users (such as, "25-30-year-old males with pets living in Microsoft must maintain for their core businesses (like search). So in Pittsburgh"). Google was able to counter by offering its own social cloud computing, too, we see oligopoly competition resulting from network on which advertisers could place those sorts of targeted ads. Internet titans branching out of their own dominant sectors to com- Google has also challenged Apple, by releasing the very popular pete with each other. Android operating system for mobile devices to compete with the There's a simple reason for their aggressive competition. When a iOS operating system that Apple uses on its iPhones and iPads. By near-monopoly already dominates its own sector, its only chance for doing so, Google reduced the threat that Apple could at some point major profit growth is to invade a rival's sector. in the future substantially reduce Google's search revenues by 27 ThreatsSafari File Edit View History Bookmarks Window Help ) 52% D Sun 7:50 PM Q . . . I V prod.reader-ui.prod.mheducation.com C Content Course Hero Class Professor Marotti Economics in Connect M Discussion Questions d aircra $10 $2 $25 O Don't Bi O 0 Assuming THIS IS a sequential game with To Confusion, what IS THE Outcome TITTIT A TITOVes first to build a new type Of COTTHITTCTCTal anrerant. LAPTamil why Thot mover Strategies In the could a supposta ving 11. LAST WORD Why have tech firms with near monopolies in their own sectors sought to compete with tech firms that have extremely strong, near-monopoly positions in other sectors? TOO ? AND O 26