On October 6, the U.S. anti-monopoly organization issued a report stating that the four major technology companies Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google used their unique advantages to destroy competition and ideas in the market, calling on Congress to take action to force them to break up their businesses.
As an observer of the global electronics industry, Foxconn is also a leading technology manufacturing company in the world. It is closely related to these four technology companies. Most of its software and hardware products are produced by Foxconn in mainland China. Supply chain information shows that Foxconn has received 80% of new iPhone orders, which are mainly produced at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory.
What is mentioned in the anti-exclusive statement?
The report accuses the Big Four of improperly exploiting market advantages to obtain benefits. “These companies have too much market influence and should be restricted and supervised. Our economy and democracy are at risk.”
The four U.S. technology giants are frequently accused of monopoly
Among the crimes committed by the four companies, e-commerce leader Amazon uses third-party seller data to promote its own brand products, which is tantamount to bullying these retail sellers.
Apple exercises excessive control over the App Store, endangering the rights of third-party city developers.
Google has nearly 90% market share in the global online search market. The main reason is that the company pays billions of dollars every year to companies such as Apple and Firefox so that Google can become the default search engine, which is not conducive to the development of competitors.
Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram is believed to be a deal by the company to “maintain and expand its dominant position in the market.”
Lawyers for the antitrust group said: “These four companies play important gatekeeper roles in the digital age, and they use this role to greatly abuse market power.”
Giants’ “monopolization” of people’s lives will continue
Public information shows that the four major technology giants are not only subject to anti-monopoly investigations in the United States. In recent years, 17 countries or regions around the world have been involved in at least more than 50 anti-monopoly disputes. Among them, various data reported in 2019 show that the four major technology giants have been involved in approximately 11 anti-monopoly “trouble” in the EU in the past three years. .
The leaders of the Big Four in technology
Faced with accusations from anti-monopoly organizations, the four technology giants issued statements as usual, objecting to the description of their affairs as monopoly, and insisting that fierce competition still exists in their respective markets.
Although the four companies insist that their respective businesses are highly competitive, their market capitalization is clearly outstanding in their respective fields. On October 8, I checked that the total market value of the “Four Kings” exceeded US$5 trillion, of which Apple was US$1.97 trillion, Amazon was US$1.6 trillion, Google was US$992.4 billion, and Facebook was US$735.3 billion. It can be called “the richest party”.
Whether they really have monopoly behavior is a professional legal issue. I think these companies use unique products and content to “steal” users’ time, control traffic and data, and spend a lot of money to occupy the market. They do “monopolize people’s lives”. ”.
Splitting up and weakening is not the goal, but allowing the market to fully compete is the goal. It is necessary to avoid the emergence of “professional rulers” but not to “kill them with one stick”, and to truly test the management capabilities of regulatory organizations. At that time, the Big Four provided high-quality products and services that people needed, and each company created its own “ecosystem.” Once anti-monopoly measures such as spin-offs were implemented, it would not only affect one company. Take Apple as an example. If Apple’s mobile phones and services disappear, in addition to tens of thousands of Apple employees, there will also be livelihood issues for millions of people throughout the entire upstream and downstream industrial chain.
Foxconn mobile phone assembly production line
Foxconn is an important supplier to Apple and has the largest number of employees in the Apple industrial chain. During the peak production period, Foxconn had as many as 500,000 to 800,000 employees producing Apple products alone. At that time, in order to meet the deadline to produce iPhone 12, Zhengzhou Foxconn had nearly 300,000 employees, and was frantically recruiting people by paying 10,000 yuan in bonuses.
The stability and continuous expansion of the “ecosystem” of the four major companies. Manufacturing, technology, and finance are as inseparable as muscles, bones and blood today. “Violent dismantling” can only bring “disaster.” Therefore, once a monopoly is formed, it is difficult to break through it. People’s “exclusive reliance” on the four technology giants will still need to continue for quite some time.The United Nations should pass a bill to split up the American consortium and let the other four permanent members control it to prevent the state machinery from being occupied by individual terrorists.
Keywords in this article: 4G DTU
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