Description: The White House recently released a report about the danger of big data in our lives. Its main focus was the same old topic of how it can hurt customer privacy.
Source: HBR.com
Date: March 2, 2015
Federal government regulators must ask themselves: Should data that only one company owns, to the extent that it prevents others from entering the market, be considered a form of monopoly?
The search market is a perfect example of data as an unfair barrier-to-entry. Google revolutionized the search market in 1996 when it introduced a search-engine algorithm based on the concept of website importance — the famous PageRank algorithm. But search algorithms have significantly evolved since then, and today, most of the modern search engines are based on machine learning algorithms combining thousands of factors — only one of which is the PageRank of a website. Today, the most prominent factors are historical search query logs and their corresponding search result clicks. Studies show that the historical search improves search results up to 31%. In effect, today’s search engines cannot reach high-quality results without this historical user behavior. Read the rest of the Story
Questions for discussion:
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
Info Systems in Practice 
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes I definitely think it does, when there isn’t much competition it is not seen as healthy or favourable amongst the public. Monopoly power can harm society by making prices higher and outputs lower. There is also a decrease in innovation in some cases if they are the only players in the market. It also affects market power, sellers ability to influence the price it charges. It also prevents new entrants that enter the market to succeed, they are doomed to fail like the article mentioned.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
I think if this problem still stretches out, there wouldn’t be much new entries in the market place.If there was new entries the probability of them succeeding is likely to be low because of companies with monopoly. Companies like Google that have monopoly are always reinventing themselves with the public wants and needs, so they will likely always have power if this continues.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes, Si, 100% agree that Monopolies exist in the current markets and do hurt competition. In the information market, it specifically hurts competition because no matter how genius of an idea someone has, if they don’t have data to use, their idea cannot be put into motion. When one company has all of the answers or the information to make the best decisions it limits what the world can do. Trying to compete against big data like Microsoft or Google is almost impossible, I can understand how this monopoly is hurting the competition in the industry. They have data that no one else has, and they are not going to share it.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? Explain
I do not see a lot of entries into this market space in the future because Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter & Bing have much more command of the market as needed. Companies such as these ones listed thrive on advancing and coming up with easier ways to search info, and if there is a way to make a better in this process, you have got to believe they already have the upper hand on it and will be able to produce it better than a new entering company. This is important because competition makes the industry better. Competition pushes companies to create new ideas and reach new levels.
Yes it certainly does. In terms of search engines, there is proof that historical data can improve its accuracy by 31%. Since the information market is based upon large amount of data being collected for marketing purposes, having a lead of 31% undoubtedly puts competitors in a disadvantage. There could be potential new entrants into this market. However, an example provided tells us that Bing being a close competitor of the leading company, and still lags behind. On the other hand, governments could soon tighten the regulations around data mining since privacy has become an increasingly controversial topic. As such the number of new entrants may be limited, but this market is profitable enough to attract new entrants. With reliable new entrants, the market could see a change in terms of main players; however, since Google still stands ahead of industry in resources and with little challengers, they will have the major share of market for quite some time.
I believe that monopolies do hurt competition because it makes it very hard for their to be new entrant organizations. Having a monopoly many in fact lead to underperformance because not all possibilities are being utilized. With their only being a monopoly they can charge whatever they want and they wont have the competition to help them make the smart decisions they would have to make otherwise. Monopolies do not feel as obliged to “play by the rules” because they don’t have the same accountability as company’s with competition and therefore can cheat people with their business more easily then they otherwise would be obliged to in regards to many things including data analytics. Company’s that want to enter into a market place that has previously only been run by a monopoly will have a very difficult time entering and trying to gain data from the already established company because they do not want to have to gain more accountability then they have without competition. Because of this there will not be a lot of new entries in big data.
With a monopoly that means that some of the data that could be used to help and save lives will not be used because certain companies will not want to divulge their data to help others. Another example is search engines; because a search engine relies on past searches therefore old data any new search engines make it harder for them to be able to be successful. If they were able to share information this would not be a problem.
I think that monopolies in the information market do hurt competition because of the reasons listed in the article. For instance, they block new search engines because an accurate search engine uses past searches to better build you an accurate search for the best item available to you. When one company has all of the answers or the information to make the best decisions it limits what the world can do. An example is medicine when a hospital specializes in a cure or the research for a cure it can block others from the information that they have discovered. This could limit the potential that that one answer to that question could give. The research on an unrelated topic may spark an answer to a different problem that scientists have been trying to solve for years. In this way by withholding information we are only truly hurting ourselves and each other.
The market for big data will continue to grow as we as a global economy continue to grow and develop. This is because as more and more people post, like, and look at certain items all of this data is being relayed in real time to a main computer to be analysed at a later time. So the more we search the more data we produce and the more big data companies know about us.
I actually believe that monopolies in the information market does a big harm on competition because it makes competition very difficult for new entrants organization. Companies creating so many barriers for new entrants are collecting so many datas which is preventing new companies from making incomes. If new companies cannot bring their products to the market then what use is it to come up with new ideas. Companies should be able to challenge one another in other to make an improvement in their organizations. Monopolies prevents inventions of new products come in to the market which is absolutely absurd.
I definitely see a lot of new entry’s in the market in the future because the more technology advances the more new organizations are coming in to show and sell their ideas.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? Yes it dose hurt the competition, Monopolies prevents inventions of new products come in to the market which is absolutely absurd.Data monopolies like Google have the ability to threaten the economy if we allow them. Like any other monopoly in any other industry they can make decisions that are best for them and their bottom line without any consideration for the effects on the economy and the wellbeing of society. being a monopoly would hurt competition because you are the sole provider of a good or service and you would want to keep it that way. If a company that has a monopoly wants to help competition grow is digging their own grave. Companies who have a monopoly want to keep it that way.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this market space in the future? is that important? explain
I definitely see a lot of new entries in this market space in the future, New entries are required to advance competitors and improve upon one another. With the new technologies that these innovators bring, the more diverse it will become.
The US Government released a report about the danger of big data and how it can hurt customer privacy? This is the same government that is demanding that Apple create a back door so that they can have access to someone’s iPhone. Right now it would seem that big data is try to protect our privacy from the government. Data monopolies like Google have the ability to threaten the economy if we allow them. Like any other monopoly in any other industry they can make decisions that are best for them and their bottom line without any consideration for the effects on the economy and the wellbeing of society. Having said that there are times when a monopoly is the best for society, however that monopoly should be regulated by the government to ensure that society’s best interests are also protected. Utility companies are a good example of regulated monopolies that work best for the public interest. Google is clearly has a monopoly on big data and will continue to be because of the barriers to enter into the industry for newcomers, the most difficult barrier would be the time that they need to collect enough data to compete. New competitors would certainly not be able to survive that long and would most likely be acquired by a bigger company before they could reach the level they would need to be competitive. Governments knowing this should be looking at regulations to protect society, business and the economy. The government will also have to accept that just because information is out there does not mean that they should have access to it any more than what would be allowable under any regulations.
Standard economic theory states that monopolies are bad for the economy because the utility of the society as a whole is not maximized. The monopoly extracts a rent thanks to its market power which results in a deadweight loss for society. When a company is in a monopolistic situation it will aim at building barriers to entry so that it can keep extracting its rent. It prevents newcomers to enter the market and therefore hurts competition. In the information markets we see that proprietary data is now used as a barrier to entry since it provides crucial strategic insights to its owner that newcomers do not have. A great example of such phenomenon is the search engine market. It is no secret that Google is the absolute world-leader on this market. Search engines rely today on deep learning mechanisms to improve in quality. It is crucial to note that such algorithms become more and more effective as they are fed with more and more data. As a matter of fact these algorithms improve as they train themselves on data and the more the better. Since Google is the oldest search engine and has a way bigger amount of historical data in comparison with its competitors (existing and potential) and given the nature of search engine algorithms today, it seems almost impossible for a newcomer to enter this market.
Monopolies in any market hurt competition. In the information market, it specifically hurts competition because no matter how genius of an idea someone has, if they don’t have data to use, their idea cannot be put into motion. Data in the information market is like cash is to a business. It is needed to bring ideas to reality and allow them to continue to grow. Without data, an information dependent company will have a very hard time applying their methods and making sure they work. Often times, they will have to get their data from the big companies and THAT is where the monopolies have all the control.
Since the monopolies of information have such a huge amount of data available to them, they are progressing at a faster rate than new-comers can keep up with. On top of that, the monopolies have the money and resources to go out of their way to impede the progression of new businesses.
This hurts the economy because monopolies can increase the price on their goods when there are no similar alternatives. Removing the choice for consumers can decrease all spending and
I do not see a lot of new names coming into this market. There is such a strong hold on the information online that legally, it would be hard for any businesses to get enough of it to start-up and stay afloat. I think if anything, there will be one big competitor that arises over time. They will have found the “multi-billion” dollar idea and the reason they will do well is because they are able to differentiate in an enormous way.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? Yes or no — explain.
Yes it dose hurt the competition. Because for monopoly, there is no competition, big companies use their manpower and financial advantage in the information markets to force the smaller companies out of the market. These big companies will be the only collector in the market, and then they can sell their information at the price they want, which will very unfair for the buyer. If government or market itself don’t do any thing to regulate the competitions monopoly will always be there.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this market space in the future? Is that important? Explain.
I do not think there will be any new entries into this market space any time soon. To start a new company in the information markets requires a great amount of manpower and financial resource, and usually who ever have these power, they are already in the market. Also it is very important for new companies entre the market. Because if there is no new entries, the monopoly will keep going, and then the industry cannot evolve and grow.
The internet of things refers to the way that the internet no longer just connects people with one another, but it connects hundreds of different devices. In my home, I am connected to the internet with my iPad, phone, laptop, Blu-Ray player, Xbox, DVR and more. The internet allows my devices to “sync” with one another and information that I put on one is accessible from the others. It is important because it gives more automation than previously available. I think it improves efficiency in the workplace, as well as in personal situations. Setting a reminder on phone, and receiving it on my computer makes it easy for me to stay on top the task I have to do.
There are lots of market technologies that are part of this. One that comes to mind off the top of my head are all the different mobile applications that are being developed for phones. McDonald’s, for example, allows people to access their coupons from their phone. Companies like Cineplex allow you to make one login and buy tickets and access your scene points from any device.
In device to device connection, we see a huge development in security technology lately. People can lock the doors of their home, view cameras in their home or place of business and even be notified when doors open, all form their phone.
In my place of work, we use the internet on our iPads to show when we are open and how busy we are. This allows customers to use their own phone or computer to see where we are and allows them to decide if they want to come use our services.
I accidentaly wrote onto the wrong blog
1) Monopolies do hurt the market because with a monopoly there is no competition. A monopoly takes other opportunities from smaller business, making it difficult for them to bring competition into the market. There can be no successful entries for these other businesses if they want into the market. A monopoly is huge, which also means they can collect large amounts of data for their own use into the market. As the article had indicated, data-based barriers can be created, making it difficult for other businesses to enter. In any market there needs to be healthy competition because with competition comes great ideas. With a monopoly, there can be no competition within a market.
2) It is hard to say that there will be many new entries into the information market because some monopolies have taken over already. If there are new entries into this market, then they need to be aware that there is little competition due to industries such as, Google. As the article had indicated, Google has revolutionized the search market. Google has become one of the primary search engines on the web and is continuously growing. This information alone gives little opportunity for other search engines to compete. New entries do have the chance to come in, but it will come done to innovation and how they can successfully enter into this ever changing market.
1. Monopolies do hurt other competition in the information market because a monopoly means you have no competition. A company like google could be a considered a monopoly. No other company can come close to what they do, and in a sense they are harming others, but in another sense this is what google is good at and deserves to be where they are. However, I do not think that this harms the industry in any way. Google is so advanced in what they do, and they are so good at it, that only having one monopoly like Google can shape the market.
2. This is a very costly market to get into. A company cannot get into it overnight and expect to see massive results. No, I do not see any companies entering this market because of how many giants there are already. The only way to enter this market is if your company has some kind of breakthrough and has what no other companies have, which is unlikely. Monopolies are creating more and more barriers which makes it nearly impossible for smaller companies to make a name for themselves. Take an example of Bing, sure its somewhat popular but it cannot compete with Google and never will.
1. Monopolies in the information market does hurt competition as it becomes nearly impossible for smaller companies to enter the market successfully. With huge dominating companies such as Google controlling the market with extensive internal data collection, the barrier to new entrants is massive and prevents new competition from entering the scene. This is not a positive thing, as it impacts the industry negatively in that there is a complete lack of competition from new companies.
2. I don’t believe we will see many new entrants into the market as monopolies are creating a huge barrier to new companies with the intention to compete. It is nearly impossible for new startup companies, as even largely successful companies such as Microsoft struggle to compete without the large pool of internally collected data. Because of this, it is highly unlikely that dominating companies with control of data will lose their competitive advantage in the market. This is unfortunate, as it is important for companies to have competition to keep them innovating and bringing new technologies and services to the table to benefit the consumer as efficiently and empathetically as possible.
This is a tough one for me. Although monopolies undoubtedly damage the market and can be detrimental to consumers and businesses alike; Google has such a massive competitive advantage in data collection that it could be difficult for any other companies to come close to them in that respect. It is tricky to wrap my head around, but I agree with the article that if data a company possesses blocks competitors from entering the marketplace, it should be treated as a monopoly.
Google is good at what they do, and have an unparalleled array of services to offer. However, ability to compete is important in order for new innovations to continually emerge. So, yes. It is important that new competitors enter…if not for the sole purpose of making Google better as they continue to adapt to a changing marketplace. No new entries into the marketspace could cause a slowdown or stagnation in the efficiency of the market. Although more competition is probably needed, I don’t foresee a lot of new competitors lining up against Google–largely because of the monopoly that Google already has.
1.
Yes I do believe that monopolies in the information market hurts competition. Monopolies hinder the ability of competitors to enter the market. Trying to compete against big data like Microsoft or google is almost impossible. And I can totally see how this monopoly is hurting the competition in the industry. They have data that no one else has, and they are not going to share it. It is fascinating however how much information is contained and how it is used and how advanced and technical that the algorithms must be to be able to handle this amount of information.
2.
No I do not think that there will be new entries into the market place. Google has its position dominated. I do not think that anything could come close to competing with it. Google does what it does so well, and people are used to and comfortable with it. Which I believe is half the battle. You have to get people to like what you are offering and then keep doing a great job at it in order to keep the consumers. I think that google is doing this perfectly. And honestly I don’t think that this is a huge issue. I think that as long as google is doing a good job they might as well stay in power. Why fix what isn’t broken?
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
Regardless of the market, a monopoly hurts competition. A monopoly creates a significant entrance barrier for new companies, which in result hurts competition. However, it is important to recognize that in order to be successful in the information market, a company must compile data over a long period, which requires massive long term investments. Specifically in Google’s case, they had to make massive investments to both invent algorithms and maintain databases. Through these investments, Google built from the ground up an impressive empire. Furthermore, Google has paved the way and made a successful industry out of data monopolizing. With this, it is easier for new entrants to enter the information market place now and in the future. As long as the technology is something that is in demand from customers, a company has the potential to steal market space from Google. If a start up is able to collect and manipulate data more effectively than Google, then they will have a superior product. It all comes down to which company offers the best product and technology, which drives the free market economy regardless of the divide between big companies and start ups.
1. As long as a company without access to big data is in competition with another company that has access, as the article puts it, “[they] are almost certainly doomed to fail.” Big data on current and potential customers hurts competition and contributes to a monopoly in the marketplace. Companies such as Google are able to capitalize on their big data and essentially push other competitors out of the search engine market due to their ability to gather such data over time. Like the article says, “data is a strategy.” Large corporations are able to eliminate competition and the threat of new entrants into their markets by accumulating data and keeping it internally.
2. I do not expect to see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future due to the monopolistic-like structures that exist. It becomes too difficult for startup companies, and even successful companies such as Microsoft to penetrate these markets with little or no access to big data. Therefore, it becomes nearly impossible for successful companies with big data to lose their competitive advantage. One downside to this is that the lack of competition may not challenge the large companies enough and they may not innovate as much as they would had they had intense competition. Infomediary business strategies however may become increasingly popular due to their ability to collect data and sell such data to various companies that may struggle to obtain data on their own.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes, monopolies in the information market hurt competition, just like they do in every industry. The barrier for entry in this market is extremely high, even a company like Microsoft which had all the capital they needed to do anything they wanted had issues getting into this market. If they hadn’t partnered up with Yahoo, then Bing would have been a massive failure. This example alone puts into perspective how difficult it would be for a small start up to become successful in this market.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
No, I do not see a lot of new entries into this marketplace in the future. The barrier of entry is simply just too high for startups to compete effectively. Also Google as a very strong strangle hold on the market. Google has ingrained itself into society so effectively that we use the term “Google it” when we are referring to searching something up on the internet. No other search engine has had such a big impact as Google, people literately will mock you if you use Bing or Yahoo. Bing is even used as a punch line. Google also continues to innovate which makes it even harder for others to compete with them. However, that doesn’t mean that Google is perfect. They have had failures in the past such as Google Glass and one could argue that Google+ is a failure as well, being unable to compete with Facebook in the social network department. So as long as Google continues to innovate successfully I do not see a new entry to this market being successful.
Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition?
Yes, monopolies in the information markets don’t only hurt competition, but destroy it completely. When a company has a monopoly there is no competition in the marketplace. If a company wanted to enter the information market they wouldn’t have to tools necessary to compete against the large firms. Microsoft found a way to enter the market by teaming up with Yahoo, but they still don’t have enough skills and knowledge to compete with an advanced firm in the market place. When it comes to everyday firms competing in the marketplace using the information technology to advance themselves ahead of the competition is fair, if other firms can find sources to access information the can help them compete.
Do you see a lot of new entries into this market place in the future? is that important?
I don’t see any new entries in the near future in the search engine department if google keeps innovating, and I don’t think this is a problem. The reason why google is the main dominator in this market is because they have the most effective search engine, which they created themselves. If google stops innovation and becomes uncreative another company will see this as an opportunity to compete with google.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes, monopolies in the information markets do hurt competition. Data is becoming a barrier-to-entry to the market and is preventing new competitors from entering. Many companies today are building their IP not solely on technology, but rather on proprietary data and its derivatives. As the amount of data that is being collected by businesses, new opportunities are also rising to build new markets and products based on that data. As many companies do not have access to this data, they are not able to compete with the companies that do.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
No I do not see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future. As discussed in the article, due to large barriers to entry, it would be extremely difficult for a new entry to not only make it into the marketplace, but also survive. There are already a few large companies that are dominating this type of technology, and it would be almost impossible for a smaller company to compete with someone like google who has dominated the search engine industry. Perhaps the only way to compete with large companies like this is to create a joint-venture which is what Microsoft did with yahoo with the creation of Bing.
Do the monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes, monopolies in the information market would hurt competition because that means that entering the marketplace would be very difficult, and their efforts might be futile depending on how powerful the monopoly is. Even if a new company is able to get into the market, it would be hard to maintain their standing and it would be hard to compete against already established companies.
Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketplace in the future? Is that important? Explain.
No, I don’t see a lot of new entries going into this marketplace in the near future due to the previously discussed issues in the first answer. However, as information systems and technologies continue to advance, companies that take a different approach than those already established might be able to attract the attention of customers and in turn be successful in the marketplace, but I think it would be quite difficult for them because it has been showed in action countless of times, even as there are new companies that are similar to Google, Google is still the most primarily used by the customers.
Yes monopolies in the information market hurt competition. Big data companies have such an advantage that they can prevent new entrants into the industry and force out smaller companies. The example that the article gives is the information search industry. Google has an advantage because it created an algorithm based on search history and has now gathered that data for over thirty years to create the most accurate search site in the world. Even Bing, who is also a massive player in the information market, is far behind google simply because they have fewer years of data to work with. This exponentially expanding data held by major companies makes it virtually impossible for new businesses to enter the market. They have no data to work with to base business decisions and strategies on. I’m not sure how the government could go about regulating this kind of activity however because the data belongs to that company and is a major part of their business. Of course they are going to use it or sell it as it suits their business strategies. It would be a major undertaking to get these big data companies to relinquish the power they have in the market and return to a more competitive industry environment.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Of course, as with any other monopoly in any market, monopolies in the information market do cause a huge barrier for other companies looking to enter the information market. This is simply because the monopoly operates much more efficiently and effectively, and as a result attracts almost all of the customers in the specific market.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? Explain
Perhaps the only way a new entry into this market can occur is with a significant competitive advantage in technology, specifically in big data and overall data retrieval and analysis. Without a competitive edge (which is very tough to achieve with a huge monopoly, such as google, as a competitor) it would be almost impossible for new companies to enter this market – since customers simply would rather spend less time and money to achieve their goals via the monopoly. Another difficult barrier to overcome for new entrants is simply the reputation among consumers companies such as Google have accumulated over their years of operating.
#1: The definition of monopoly is a market structure characterized by a single seller, selling a unique product in the market. In a monopoly market, the seller faces no competition, as he is the sole seller of goods with no close substitute. So by being a monopoly company would it hurt competition? Of course being a monopoly would hurt competition because you are the sole provider of a good or service and you would want to keep it that way. If a company that has a monopoly wants to help competition grow is digging their own grave. Companies who have a monopoly want to keep it that way. Google isn’t about to tell Yahoo or Bing their secret algorithm because they succeeded in building something relatively unbreakable. On the other side of the argument is google or any so called monopoly hurting the market? Potentially, meaning that those smaller companies could revolutionize the market more so than the sole company. But that being said having a monopoly creates diversity in smaller competitors to large companies. The small companies don’t want to compete with the large company so the small one recreates their image or product and helps others in another market.
1) I think that monopolies in the information market hurts competition because of how hard it makes smaller organizations entering the market to become successful. The article says that data is strategy, and the main barrier to entry. It hurts competition and even if new firms make it in, its hard for them to stay in or to be successful. It is hard to develop, make a difference and succeed with monopolies. I think it would be beneficial if industries, companies, businesses, challenged each other and made competition better and easier in order to make improvements and a fair marketplace. Major companies I think have a major advantage over smaller or new entry companies but with the market and technology I think there is always room for improvement and something new.
2) No I do not see a lot of new entries in the marketplace in the future and if there were to be new entries, I could see them not succeeding or not lasting very long. There is already so much out there and so much technology that it would be hard for new entries and even though technology is always advancing, you can only come up with so much like google or social media, I don’t think it would work if new entries tried to enter the market.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes- monopolies in the information markets hurt competition, much like monopolies hurt competition in most industries. Although companies like Google do continue to innovate their technology, I think smaller companies and start-ups should have a chance to compete and bring new ideas into the marketplace. “Google it” has become a verb in todays society. Google is definitely the leader in terms of Internet search engines and because of the their historical database it is almost impossible for competitors to strive in the search engine marketplace (an example being Microsoft Bing). This hurts the marketplace because even when smaller companies have a great innovation idea, Google has the capital and power to steal that idea.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? Is that important? Explain
I don’t see a lot of new entries into this information marketplace in the short-term future, although it’s hard to say for the long-term future of information systems. Because technology is advancing so fast and there are so many great innovations on the horizon, I do think companies can choose to specialize in other areas of the information markets.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes I believe that they do hurt competition because the current firms who control the data market have made it so difficult for other firms to enter the market. Data is a barrier-to-entry as mentioned in the article. New innovations are so frequently overlooked because it is thought that the technology already in place is the best and that the small companies coming up with new ideas will never work. When this may not be the case, in fact a new company trying to enter the market may have a new more improved innovation that never stood a chance because of the market domination.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? Explain
I am unsure whether of not new entries will take place, but as of right now I cannot see this happening. Big data companies already have such a huge leg up on companies trying to enter the market that I can’t see it changing in the near future. These controlling companies have the advantage of having been collecting this data for a bit now and have the market capitalization to get enough data to perform and dominate the marketplace. Like the article mentioned Google is an example that has controlled the market so much I don’t see smaller companies taking over them anytime soon.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
1) Yes i do believe that these monopolies like all others can dwindle the competition. This being because they hold a market share and can make the market in their favour restricting other companies from being able to enter. Small companies just aren’t able to gain a foothold in that market as they don’t have the capacity to compete at a high level against the large companies.
2) I don’t see a great opportunity for the growth as currently these companies have already gained a competitive edge and have the developed software and customer base and are now just furthering the gap on technology making it even more difficult to enter this market place. Google is a prime example of this as they entered the market and gained those users and when Microsoft tried a few years later they failed as customers had already got used to google and google already controlled the market and has just been growing since making it harder as the years go to gain entrance so for the foreseeable future i don’t believe there will be any new entrants.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
I do believe that monopolies in the information markets hurt competition as well as growth economically. Google, bing, yahoo are all examples of search engines that monopolize the information market. Google is by far the biggest and most used one, and therefore has the biggest market control on what can be viewed. This can have extreme implications on society as a whole, as they can modify there search engine to promote/demote products and services, as well as everything they see as a threat. This could be government, different views on opinion. I know the China government has had a riff with Google entering their county. I believe it has banned Google from operating there for this reason exactly. The Chinese government does not want people to have access to the outside world that will perhaps hinder their image.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
I do not see a lot of entries into this market space in the future because Google, yahoo bing have way to much command of the market as is. these companies thrive on advancing and coming up with easier ways to search info, and if there is a way to make a better in this process, you have got to believe they already have the upper hand on it and will be able to produce it better than a new entering company.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this market space in the future? Is that important? Explain.
Monopolies in the information markets certainly hurt competition, for the most part, due to the fact that emerging tech companies simply cannot compete with companies such as Google. These tech giants are so firmly engrained in the marketplace that start up companies are struggling to provide a product or service that can even compare to the expertise offered by larger companies. Larger companies such as Google have been around since the adolescence of the Internet and computers and thus have gained a competitive advantage through experience and massive expansion. The main issue for emerging companies is lack of funds to develop comparable technologies, and lack of funds to acquire a larger tech savvy staff. Even if these companies came close to developing something that Google hadn’t already, there is a good chance they would be offered a hefty buyout that they could not refuse. I believe there will be a huge number of new entries into this market in the future because technology is becoming exponentially cheaper and more advanced every year, so new start-ups will have an increasing access to new and advanced technology. This advancement will continually help smaller companies differentiate their product offering from larger companies, and allow them to be more competitive in what now, seems like a monopolistic industry.
1) Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes monopolies in the information markets hurt competition because of the competitive advantage they have with knowing data about users which in return, makes it very difficult for new entrants to come in and try to compete with these already established companies due to their marketing strategies they have developed because of the vast amount of proprietary data they have. If new competitors are unable to enter the market, these leading companies have the opportunity to take over the economy and basically set the standards of pricing and norms for goods/services to whatever they want. They can collaborate with already existing companies that are able to compete with them and come up with standards that they can all use to exploit consumers because new entrants are not able to enter to try and make a difference in what is happening. The government needs to realize that having this power of data is the formation of a monopoly and they need to set rules and regulation to prevent this so our economy can stay stable and people looking to start a business can come into the field so we can have fair competition. In the example with algorithms, new competitors that come into the market and have even BETTER algorithms then the other already established companies, are still not able to compete as the other companies already have “deep record of previous user behaviour”. These companies already have a huge competitive advantage that new companies cannot even begin to compete with no matter how advanced they try and bring their technology to the competition. Having access to copious amount of data allows a company to have a “data monopoly”, which eliminates new comers from entering the field and can seriously hurt our economy. The government needs to intervene and realize the implications this has and put regulations on this so new entrants can compete.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? Yes or no — explain.
In my opinion, monopolies in the information markets hurt competition. It can also be debated that monopolies seek to eliminate competition in order to maximize profit and/or swallow up new market entrants or other companies that are noticeably progressing in the market. As illustrated in the article, look at the huge monopoly Google has in the search engine arena. Google has over sixty-five percent of the global search engine pie and the company in second position has less than twenty-percent. Furthermore, the monopoly has more of the pie than the others pooled together. It is hard to image that popular search engines like Yahoo and Bing combined are nowhere near Google in the search engine arena. Now, pause for a second and think about the previous two sentences. If you and others were randomly asked to name at least seven popular search engine companies other than the top six, do you think you would be able to answer the question? Search engines like Wow and Bing arguably might be better to use when compared with Google, but which search engine will most people choose first when presented with the selection opportunity. What do you think would happen if a new search engine company named Better has great features with the ability to transform the current search engine market? Would Better be given the opportunity to independently succeed without being swallowed up by the monopoly and if it is not swallowed up, do you think it would independently prosper among the current competitors? And if Better does prosper, how long do you think it would take the company to succeed?
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes monopolies in the information market hurt competition, because it makes it difficult for smaller organizations to enter the market, or be successful. Even if new firms do make it into the market, it is very difficult for them to stay in it, and make any sort of impact. It is also very hard to create your own unique firm, as it is hard to develop without the influence and affect of monopolies in the information market already.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
I think there will always be the effort to try and enter into the marketplace, but I don’t think any of them will be overly successful, and will fall back out. Everyone knows how successful Google and Facebook are, and they are simply too large of organizations to outbeat. Even if a firm comes out with a better improved technology, people have too strong of a connection and relationship with the companies like Google and Facebook. People also like to stay with what they know well, and are comfortable with. There are also many innovators who want to be the next Zuckerberg and will probably continue to try.This market especially isn’t cheap to develop and try to fight in, and companies are finding this out the hard way.
Monopolies in the info market do hurt competition. I think the real question is what is the alternative. Lots of people would be disturbed by the amount of data google has about them, but wouldn’t it make that breach of privacy worse if google then had to share that info with any company that requested it? There is no easy answer in how this issue can be controlled. Every time we access the internet, whether we know it or not, we are giving information out. We generally are not alarmed by this because it is not our credit card or social insurance numbers, but search engines are able to slowly build up a profile for each of us with such detail it is scary.
There is a possibility of new entrants into this market. Despite the enormity of the barriers to entry, the tech sector has always been full of trend seekers looking for the new fad. With all its power, maybe google will eventually become to mainstream for the same consumers who made it successful in the first place. Maybe there is a small opportunity for a small company to move in with a revolutionary new way of doing things that will be quickly adopted by the masses.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? Yes or no — explain.
Yes – I agree that monopolies in the information market hurt competition because they do not allow for any competitor to threaten their company. As the article stated, data is strategy, and this is the main barrier to entry in the search engine industry. Today there are multiple companies who believe they will dominate over google. For some companies they may have a competitive advantage that is significant over the dominant industry. However, it is not sustainable because the leading company has an enormous amount of user data that only they can touch. I believe that it is risky to rely on monopolies because they hold so much market power, which can easily be abused.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? Explain
I see new entries in this market in the long run but not the short-run. People trust google and it will take a lot of knowledge and power to dominate or even come close to competing with them. I think people will attempt to enter the information market but I do not think they will succeed since it is an extremely high risk, low reward industry to invest in at the moment. However, this is subject to change with new government implications and laws being introduced to the information market.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
-Monopolies affect competition in information markets in the same way they affect other markets, they do hurt competition. They make it extremely difficult for new firms to enter the market and succeed. Even if companies do pass the first obstacle of entering the market, monopolies have the power to suppress new firms and run them out of business. These companies can do this until they have run the rising competitors out of the market, even if it means temporarily incurring losses. They create a barrier to the market. The longer the situation remains, the greater the power and damage the monopolies will do to the market. Monopolies such as google can and will certainly buy out small start up companies that would otherwise succeed if the market was competitive.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
-No, I do not see a lot of new entries into this market-space in the future. I do believe it is still possible, and I do believe that we will some new entrants, just not a lot as the market does not support the new entry of firms. It is important because competition makes the industry better. Competition pushes companies to create new ideas and reach new levels.
Data Monopolies
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? Yes or No — Explain
Given that monopolies hurt other business sectors one could easily assumer that it would hurt in the information market as well. Monopolies enable a select few companies to hold all of the power and force smaller companies to fold or join. This doesn’t help competition within the industry because companies are no longer always striving to be better than ones competitor. Developing the best algorithm or gain this data is no longer important. Just having the data in general is.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this market space in the future? Is that important? Explain
I do not see many new entrants in the industry in the future. The companies than currently collect this data like Facebook and Google are so entrenched into everyone’s day-to-day life the change of that changing in a significant way is slim at best. Unless the collection of this data becomes more regulated by the government I don’t believe things will change. The government should control how companies are able to use or even collect this information on its people.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Monopolies’ are a huge hindrance on the economy. The more businesses there are the more jobs that are available to the public. If there’s only one or a couple business with no competition there’s not only a limited number of jobs. Without competition there is nothing stopping them from raising their prices and extorting consumers.
The same applies to the information markets. Google, yahoo, and bing may employ a lot of people, however if there were more companies able to join the search engine market there would be more jobs available then there are with just google, yahoo, and bing.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this marketspace in the future? is that important? explain
I think the fact that bing being a new player and having difficulty staying competitive with google is a good example on the difficulty of entering into this market. If google is gaining an advantage with its history data then it’ll only be harder as time continues. The term “google it” certainly shows how google has monopolized the search engine industry. If google is the only search engine that gets ahead, because of its analytical history logs that has been around a lot longer then any other company that wishes to join the search engine market then it will certainly be an extremely difficult market to enter. With out government interference on placing regulations on collecting private user information and an endless source of money it will be an almost impossible market to enter into.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? Yes or no? Explain.
– I personally believe that monopolies in the information markets can hurt competition. Regardless of the industry, innovators are needed to help grow and evolve their respective industries. Innovators also require the ability to create and implement their ideas without any barriers restricting them. If there is a monopoly, which serves as said barrier, it will make things much more difficult to bring about change. Since a monopoly would only have one company controlling the information flow, it reduces innovation and keeps the industry stagnant. Companies should focus on competing with one another in order to improve upon their faults. Innovations and ideas blossom from this competition as the companies strive to outperform their rivals. This competitiveness allows companies to prosper and grow making monopolies a danger.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this market space in the future? Is that important? Explain.
– I would not be surprised to see new entries into this marketplace. New entries are required to advance competitors and improve upon one another. With the new technologies that these innovators bring, the more diverse it will become. However, in the case of these information companies, it makes things difficult for the end user as they continue to improve their methods in obtaining information. Even if new entries are crowded out and an information monopoly occurs, the end users information is always being taken regardless in a short period of time. This data may be important to larger companies as it gives them an edge over their competitors but it also comes as risk to privacy of the end user. It should have to justify the costs of privacy in order to stay ahead without risking too much.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
Yes,it hurts. Because it makes it very difficult for smaller organizations to make a successful entrance to the market. Monopoly industries have market pricing initiative,they may establish rules to prevent other competitors from entering.Monopolies will raise barriers to entry, and increasing the cost of entry.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this market space in the future? is that important? explain
There will be some news entries into this market space in the future,but I think many of them will fail,or they will hard to exist,because they are too small to compete with monopolies.But it is important,because quality of service monopoly industries is often unsatisfactory, often contrary to market rules, violation of consumer fair trading rights and the right to choose.If there are many new entries into this market,these monopolies will try to improve themselves,continue to improve efficiency.
1. Do monopolies in the information markets hurt competition? yes or no — explain.
I believe monopolies are hurtful and can negatively affect the information market. It is never good when there isn’t healthy competition. Monopolies are a difficult subject in a sense because in order to have that kind of market share for an organization to debatably have a monopoly they must have been doing something right that the consumer liked other wise they wouldn’t be in that position. Without healthy competition though that market could become so ridiculous and an organization could potentially make unfair gains over the consumers in a sense that they would be the only players in the market.
2. Do you see a lot of new entries into this market space in the future? is that important? explain
I think some people may try to enter the market but it is such an expensive industry to try to enter because of the resources and capital it takes to enter. With technology always improving it would be hard to compete with a big company, I believe in the future more so than anything a company might expand and build off of one another to improve information markets and broaden there horizons and capabilities of what they can do.
I would agree that monopolies in the information markets hurt competition because like the article said data-based barriers to entry can affect any industry. In an ever evolving world we need new innovators bringing their ideas to the market to create more efficient and effective technologies. If new companies cannot even get their products to the marketplace what is the point in developing new ideas. Companies should be challenging one another to make improvements to already existing inventions and ideas. Another point the article makes is thinking about data is a strategy as one whole. Instead monopolies prevent some of the greatest inventions from coming to the market because data becomes the barrier to entry. Competitiveness in industry is what makes the economy successful.
I see several new entries into this marketplace in the future because as technology advances there becomes new innovations to efficiently collect data from consumers or people sitting at home surfing the web. Now what they do with the information they collect and remain successful in the marketplace that is a different story. Now personally I am not a fan of information companies track every move on make on line and in my daily life. In a country where I am supposed to feel free to do whatever I like it takes away from my freedom. It makes me think I am being spied on (which I am). I think it is neat what information companies can do and how they can collect this massive amounts of data in a short period of time. What I do not like is that they look to profit off my behavioral habits and I get nothing.
1. I believe that the monopolies in the information market does hurt competition because it makes it very difficult for smaller organizations to make a successful entrance to the market. With these companies collecting so much data it creates a barrier to new entry and prevents new competition. This in turn leads to overall industry suffering from lack of competition and results in hurting the economy
2. I don’t believe there will be many new entries into the market because of these monopolies that are creating the barriers to new competition in the market place. Even if there is a company that tries to enter the market it will most likely fade out or not gain the popularity it wishes. The example of google revolutionizing the search market it makes it extremely difficult for other entries to get a piece of the action like Bing struggling to compete with the power giant of google. The Data possessed by these large corporations gives them a huge competitive advantage that is too difficult for the smaller companies even if they on paper have the better business strategy. This provides the corporations that have been around longer in the market the competitive edge it need to effectively beat out the competition.