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From a "supporting startups and other peoples business ideas" your point makes sense, but from a consumer perspective it really doesn't. You're advocating for limiting a companies ability to provide a product to the customers that the customers want, so that others are able to compete. Using regulation and laws to hamstring a companies ability to provide a successful and demanded product or suite of products doesn't improve things from a consumer standpoint, it actually limits both the product they have now, and the products that may be developed in the future in the space you opened up with regulation. The combined ecosystem of google is optional (I use google services in multiple browsers, I block all adds including google, the hardware it runs on is irrelevant to me, I could use bing or other search providers if they offer better results, sometimes I do). The fact is the google ecosystem is convenient, but its not a huge value add for the customer like you represent. I'm able to switch out any one google product for a competitor without a significant impact to my daily working life, but none of those other products that startups or others have provided are better than what google offers (browser, email, search). Even Amazon has taken android and stripped out the google suite, and that is a successful product showing that it can be done and has been done. Startups have always had the incumbent/entrenched product to deal with. If its significantly revolutionary and disruptive, that overcomes the incumbents advantages of size, exposure and entrenchment. The issue is Google is not only innovating at the large scale, but actively seeks out and purchases startups with approaches that are better and implements those in house (sometimes, or just squashes the startup and moves the IP and people elsewhere for its own benefits). Large companies like MSFT, Apple, GOOG, Salesforce etc.. have learned that at scale, you can't innovate as quickly due to unavoidable corporate overhead, but you can purchase innovation and implement it internally (some do it better, many worse). If the problem is google doesn't have any competitors/startups that are able to break into the market, its either due to a lack of innovation/disruption in that market segment, or if there is, google/others are purchasing that rather than compete against it. |