Friday, July 27, 2007

The FTC and monopoly-busting

One of my favorite blogs, Silicon Hutong, so rarely posts (only 3 in the last month) that whenever there's a new article up, I feel compelled to link to it. But it's quality, not quantity, that I look for. Today, a discussion of the FTC's role in breaking monopolies (and more importantly, what constitutes a monopoly), and how global scope becomes increasingly important:
Industries that are living through a period of innovation driven change - especially those that are creative or technological in nature - are not industries where competitive advantage - much less market dominance, much less market control - is truly sustainable. Google is a technology-based company in an industry tossed by constant innovation that relies for its revenue on an industry that is fundamentally creative. Controlling innovation, technology, and creativity is harder to conceive than controlling oil reserves, tankers, refineries, and gas stations.

From the outside, the Googleplex looks like a huge new-age ziggurat, an Orwellian monolith of corporate power. But walk the hallways trod by the men and women responsible for the future of that company and what I would bet you would find is not a group of fat cats overcome by hubris, but smart men and women who look around the world and know that in ten thousand tiny offices, garages, dorm rooms, and coffee-houses around the world, people are gunning for Google, and enough capital to finance a medium-sized country stands ready to fund these potential challengers.

Check out the whole article - definitely worthwhile.

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