In the new world on the internet, the markets behave in a much more winner-take-all fashion. So this raises the question of, does Amazon have some sort of responsibility here? Or is Amazon in the wrong? And if they are, is it because they are the beneficiary of a network effect and so that in and of itself grants some kind of responsibility? That's interesting. I mean, the direction we're taking this conversation would almost suggest that the way you need to think about antitrust changes. It might be worth considering whether antitrust needs to take account of network effects.
This episode surprised us; through a discussion of who is at fault in the latest series of new vs old-world spats, we realized that not only has the Internet fundamentally changed winners-and-losers, but also the very nature of economic competition and the type of regulation that is required.
Topics & Links
- Mathew Ingram: Giants Behaving Badly – GigaOm
Google v MetaFilter
- Matt Haughey: On the Future of MetaFilter – Medium
Journalism v Facebook
- Mike Hudack: A Rant About the State of Media – Facebook
- Ben Thompson: Newspapers are Dead; Long Live Journalism – Stratechery
Amazon v Publishers
Antitrust, Network Effects, and the Age of Abundance
Do Tech Companies Have a Responsibility to Society?
On how the Internet has fundamentally changed the world, and how government regulation is hopelessly behind
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