Last Updated on 2020-12-31 by ppcguybklyn
One of the biggest news in the technology industry today is thatthe US Department of Justice is suing Google’s search engine business for violating antitrust laws. What is going on? In this article, I will sort out the highlights of the current news and how the digital marketing industry that relies heavily on Google products should view this news.
The reason for the Lawsuit
The U.S. Department of Justice made a lawsuit mainly because it believes that Google made use of its company’s size and power to maintain its own search engine exclusive business. For example, through cooperation agreements, Apple computers, mobile phones, and other devices can set Google as the default search engine. The Department of Justice also believes that Google has long used countermeasures to suppress the growth of potential competitors to ensure its leading position in natural search and search advertising. The use of countermeasures to purchase or suppress the growth of competitors by large companies violates the spirit of antitrust laws. The news also mentions that some critics believe that Google has deliberately adjusted search results and user experience for a long time to make consumers more dependent on Google’s apps and services, such as YouTube and Google Map.
Experts pointed out that this lawsuit may be a milestone that the government is about to actively intervene in the development of the technology giant. If this lawsuit is successful, it will successfully separate Google’s business into several different corporate entities, rather than all being owned by Google. , So that other relatively small competitors can have room for growth.
“For many years, Google has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising — the cornerstones of its empire.”
-DOJ’s lawsuit
Google's response:
Googleresponded formally shortlyafter DOJ filed the lawsuit, and believed that this lawsuit was "Deeply Flawed." Google believes that consumers are not forced to accept Google as their search engine, but voluntarily choose to use Google's services. In the official statement, Google gave a number of examples to support this argument. For example, the search engine in Apple computers can appear in the default settings after paying for the contract with Apple, and Bing and Yahoo can also be found in Apple computers. At the same time, as long as it is a Microsoft computer, the current default browser and search engine will be Microsoft's own Edge and Bing.
Google pointed out that consumers can freely choose whether to use other search engines and services. If the government forcibly intervenes to control the free competition in this industry, consumers will most likely be forced to accept products and services of poorer quality, and suffer later. The people will still be the consumers themselves. All in all, Google's argument focuses on the current monopoly market is the result of free competition, and the government should not intervene.
“Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives. “
Google’s official response
The significance of this litigation representative
It’s not the first time the US government has had opinions on large technology companies. Before this lawsuit, there have been several records of troubles against large technology companies. The most famous lawsuit may be thatin 2018, lawmakers were asking Mark Zuckerberg about information security and privacy issues. The most relevant news about this lawsuit isthe summons of Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google to the hearing in July this year, asking whether these large-scale technology industries use their market bargaining power and the big data collected to oppress other competitors. But at best, it is only to the extent that it accepts questions in front of members of Congress, and there has been no special substantive action before.
The use of lawsuits by the Department of Justice to accuse Google of violating antitrust laws may indicate that US government agencies have begun to treat monopoly technology as a concern and will be more active in the development of the technology industry in the future. The recent Facebook and twitterblockade of the presidential candidate Biden’s email scandalhas made the government and the public aware of the impact of social media and the technology industry on the reception of social information. Although Google, whose main business is a search engine, has not been involved. In this incident, because the vast majority of Internet users choose to use Google as a channel for data query, if Google really has a trick to prevent competitors from growing, and at the same time deliberately filtering search results, regardless of the market Development or the dissemination of important information will have a very large impact. This lawsuit is likely to be just the beginning. In the future, the US government is likely to have more relevant measures to regulate these exclusive technological undertakings.
How should the digital marketing industry view this news?
A very large part of the digital marketing industry focuses on Google’s products and services, and the core of this lawsuit is the two largest profit channels of natural search and search advertising. At present, all SEO technologies are centered on improving Google’s ranking, and search Advertising is also based on Google Ads. So I think anyone who is engaged in digital marketing related work should continue to pay attention to this news because the subsequent development of this lawsuit is likely to directly affect the future ecology of this industry. However, since the core concepts of website optimization and search advertising marketing are basically the same, the cost of migration will not be too high when Google alternatives appear. What needs to be worried is whether government organizations will continue to tighten advertising platforms for information The specifications used to make precise marketing more and more difficult.
Of course, if this lawsuit is really successful, it does not mean that Google will lose its leading position overnight, so the digital marketing business should not change much in the short term. However, if there are more substitutes in industry, and the regulations on advertising and data usage become more strict, we should continue to expand advertising tools and profit sources outside of Google to ensure that companies and customers do not rely too much on Google products and accurate marketing based on user data. In terms of individuals, we need to constantly acquire new online marketing knowledge and skills, so that we can grasp the latest trends in the industry, and we can calmly deal with changes in the industry.
