Whether Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple are monopolizing the market by sweeping out rivals, each CEO's remark is like this

The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating antitrust law, suspecting that giant technology companies such as Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple are monopolizing the market. On Wednesday, July 29, 2020, CEO Jeff Bezos, CEO Thunder Pichai, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and CEO Tim Cook participated in the hearing and gave testimony. CEOs have summarized the remarks on whether Facebook is threatening its competitors or robbing Amazon and others of technology and opportunities.

Big tech hearing live updates: Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon CEOs testify before Congress-The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/29/apple-google-facebook-amazon-congress-hearing/

Tech antitrust hearing: Zuckerberg, Bezos, Cook, and Pichai testify before Congress-The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21335706/antitrust-hearing-highlights-facebook-google-amazon-apple-congress-testimony

The state of the hearing can be seen from the following movie. As a countermeasure against the new coronavirus, each CEO gave a testimony remotely instead of appearing in the parliament.

Online Platforms and Market Power: Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google-YouTube


According to IT media VentureBeat , four CEOs were asked by parliamentarians, while Bezos CEO, Pichai CEO and Zuckerberg CEO were asked for 50 minutes, whereas Cook CEO has a questioning time of 25 minutes. It was about half. Also, Bezos CEO was asked 13 times, Pichai CEO and Zuckerberg CEO 16 times, and Cook CEO 7 times. VentureBeat said this number of questions shows where the focus of antitrust violations lies.

A big focus of Google, which has been asked the most, is the criticism that Google favors its products in Google search results.

It is pointed out that the top Google search results are occupied by ``Google owned websites''-GIGAZINE

Regarding Google's practice of extracting restaurant reviews and other content into its own content, Rep. David Sicillini asked CEO Pichai, 'Why does Google steal content from honest business?' If Pichai hasn't made a clear denial, Rep. Sicilini further quoted Google's internal use of ' vertical search is too much traffic,' saying, 'Send users to relevant websites.' Is there a conflict of interest between Google's purpose and'selling ads and promoting our services'?'

Google didn't give a definitive answer to either, but when asked if 'we are monitoring traffic to identify and defeat competitors,' Pichai said, 'A lawmaker, another Like businesses, we try to understand trends from the data we see, and use that data to improve our products for our users.'

Facebook was also asked about the Instagram acquisition. Asked if Facebook bought Instagram to prevent it from becoming a threat to competition, Cuckerberg said he wasn't sure if Instagram succeeded without Facebook's help. 'We can't guarantee that Instagram has been successful. It's not just the founder's talent that made this acquisition so successful, we invested in and promoted infrastructure to achieve many security-related things. It is because there is it.”

A document showing that Facebook's acquisition of Instagram was aimed at ``incapacitating competitors''-GIGAZINE

On the other hand, the committee feared that Instagram founder Kevin Cistrom said in a chat at the time, 'If you do not sell Instagram to Facebook, Zuckerberg may be in 'destructive mode''. Mention what was happening. Zuckerberg denied the statement, saying 'Facebook was clearly going to beat Instagram,' but lawmakers said, 'If the dominant platform threatened potential rivals, that's normal business practice. I don't have any.'

Facebook is also in the middle of a '#StopHateForProfit' campaign that boycotts Facebook ads. In response to criticism that Facebook is spreading information that promotes discrimination and obstructing politics, CEO Zuckerberg said, ``We attach great importance to the issue of interference in elections and focus on hate speech measures as well. We repeat the previous claims that we are removing hate speech by using a very precise AI system. In addition, Facebook is reportedly thinking that ' the brand that boycotted the advertisement will return to Facebook soon ', but Zuckerberg CEO responded to the parliamentarian's question 'Of course I care about the boycott'. I answer.

And Amazon has been accused of using third-party data to improve its private brand, but CEO Bezos said ``I can not guarantee that I have not violated the policy''. ..

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says ``I can not guarantee that I have not violated the policy''-GIGAZINE

Some of Amazon's third-party sellers say that the structure exploited by Amazon is 'like a heroin dealer', but Bezos denied that 'I can not agree with that expression'. 'The fact that Amazon makes and sells products essentially conflicts with the sales of products by third parties. Especially in the case of Amazon, it is the side that sets the rules of the game,' further pursued, Bezos replied, 'It is the consumer who makes the decision.'

Reps also point out that Amazon Echo recommends private brand batteries when users ask about batteries from other brands. Regarding the fact that Amazon, which should be a platform, is selling its products instead of competitors, Bezos said that Alexa was trained to advertise its products, but ``The case where they advertise their products It's a business practice, and I wouldn't be surprised if Alexa occasionally advertised our product.'

For Apple, the main issue was that the App Store was exploitative. About this, Cook explains to the developers, 'The door is wide open.'

The App Store ``opens the door to developers'', Tim Cook denies market monopoly-GIGAZINE

by YunHo LEE

Meanwhile, it has also been discovered that Apple was trying to raise App Store fees to 40%.

It turns out that Apple was trying to raise the App Store fee to 40%-GIGAZINE

Also, while forced labor production was discussed with each CEO, Cook in particular said, 'I'll make it clear. Forced labor is an abomination and Apple doesn't tolerate it.' ..

The state of each CEO who answered the question remotely is like this. Room Rater, a Twitter account that evaluates the environment and background in video conferencing, highly appreciated the background of CEO Pichai, who is professional but has no fancy decoration.