Tech Monopolies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Whenever we get people young enough to actually understand the internet, these giant tech companies might be broken up but as long as we have 90 year old senators asking tech CEOs how the internet works nothing will get done.

Whenever someone tells you "the market will regulate itself", be sure it wont. Not if the companies at the top can prevent it.

For those keeping track- both the bills mentioned in the episode are dead in the water so far, with a handful of co-sponsors each

I had a best friend say "I'm gonna Bing it.." about 5 years ago I still remember it because I never saw him again after that. Not a coincidence.

Back in 2018 when John Oliver did the episode on Corporate Consolidation it inspired me so much that I applied for a Masters of Research program, got into a program, and did my entire research thesis on tech oligopolies. It was shocking to see how bad it really is; oligopolies that bordered in monopolies are rampant. My research essentially focused on the question of whether lack of enforcement of our antitrust laws caused this whole problem or whether lack of adequate laws were the core of the issue. The answer was that it was truly both. I thoroughly enjoyed my pre-doctoral masters thesis and am considering a PhD in the future. It's so lovely to see John talk about this, specifically on the tech sector! Edit: Wow! Thanks everyone for the great comments! I haven't published it yet, otherwise I would share it with all you lovely people ❤ I am now looking for a policy or qualitative research/analyst job so if anyone is hiring, let me know 😅

I remember working at a local game store, and making it a point of pride whenever I convinced a customer to buy from us and not amazon. One time someone came in to buy Catan, and they said, “well, I ordered it already on Amazon, but I really want to play it tonight.” I reminded them they could cancel the order, and they did in a heartbeat. That felt very, very good.

John Oliver deserves an Oscar for his 'Can Dolphins love you?" monologue

The fact that they mentioned both kid’s guide to the internet and the Jeremy renner app makes it clear that one of the writers was watching drew gooden

Companies: We love capitalism Capitalism: Here's some competition Companies: NOT LIKE THAT!

I worked for a company that did wholesale and retail business with Amazon. Many times we were selling the exact same skus retail that they bought and warehoused. Obviously Amazon would control the buy box. As an experiment, I dropped the retail price to see what Amazon would do. Their algorithms immediately dropped the price on their inventory. Since I was selling to them, I knew what they paid wholesale. So I dropped the retail price BELOW their wholesale price. Amazon's algorithms immediately dropped their price BELOW what they paid for it, and they were willing to go as low as I would go, right up against free. How can anyone compete with a company that can run losses like this?

I work for a local pool shop and we sell robotic pool cleaners. I cannot even begin to tell you how often someone comes in, asks a price, and then tells us they'll buy it off Amazon instead. Amazon doesn't just harm online retailers, it also harms actual real life retailers too. We cannot compete with prices that are as low as $900

Follow up one year on. Did you just update to iOS 17.4? Live in the EU? Apple just got monopoly-busted. Thanks EU! Are you enjoying USB-C on your iPhone 15 Pro Max? Yup, that too. Send a thank you to the European Commission. Going back a number of years, do you remember those obscene roaming charges in Europe? Yup. That too. Consumer rights when flights get cancelled? Yup (always fly with European carriers whenever you can). Anyone pooh-poohing the EU thinking it’s all about government overreach isn’t paying enough attention and is taking a lot for granted.

I used to be a seller on Amazon. EVERYTHING john presented about Amazon's business practices I personally experienced myself. I had to stop my business after a few years, throw away tens of thousands worth of merchandise, and now work a regular office job. I literally could not compete with Amazon on their own platform.

I literally ate for an entire semester of college because of ATT, MCI and Sprint in about 1990. Those 3 were so competitive that they would send you a check for $300 to switch your long distance carrier. Not credit, not discount, a check that you could cash... and they kept no record of it. So every 2 months I would just switch my carrier, cash the check, and almost immediately the other two companies would start calling me making the same offer. And as soon as you switched away from a carrier, they would call you and offer you a check, even if you had already gotten one from the same company. The crazy part is, I had almost no long distance bill ever. It lasted for about 9 months before they stopped offering the checks. I'm going to estimate I made between $1500 and $2000 just from those 'switch to us and we will send you a check' offers.

11:26 he perfectly encapsulates the chaos of a wildly off topic and trailed off google search, and how it can emotionally wreak havoc in a matter of seconds lmaooo

I live for the day these companies are broken up. There’s no such thing as a free market when a company has enough power to strangle you out of existence, that’s not competition, that’s a cartel.

Conservatives online often express their desire to break up “big tech,” but when I mention that Elizabeth Warren was the only presidential candidate in 2020 who made that exact issue part of her platform, I never get a response of any kind

As an Amazon seller myself, absolutely being crushed by said policies on Amazon, I am so glad this got the attention that it needs. Amazon currently owes me nearly 7k and refuses to pay, and has caused so many liabilities over the past few years I couldn't even tell them all. We don't even get the chance to sue them for their mishaps because the agreement we sign when we sign up prevents us from doing so.

Points that were missed: - Apple arguably has a specific Monopoly in the US with smartphones because of iMessage not being open with other multi-platform messaging apps. This weirdly only applies in the States. The rest of the world favours things like WhatsApp and Facebook messenger ( both owned by meta, Which is its own issue). That's probably the main defence Apple will bring up. - they've been in trouble before but don't forget about Microsoft, Windows 11 has seen them go back to some of their old tricks like a favouring their own software and making it difficult to remove. - this kind of got glossed over but although Google play takes the same cut for purchases as Apple, you are free to install other app stores and install apps from wherever you like, so they avoid the heat there. Google play is still the most preferred store on Android phones, so Google likely takes advantage of that fact in promoting its own software.

for anyone wondering they both passed or rather got voted to advance with a 20/2 vote for the "open app market act" and a 16/6 vote for the "American choice and innovation online act"