George Soros’ Argument
Discuss the performance of the Google and Facebook, two advertising industry giant accused of stealing the freedom of mind by the George Soros.
Information technology is one of the things that the growth of research and development of 21st century has provided to the humankind (Kuhlthau et al. 2015). With the rapid boom of the information technology, world has now become able to connect seamlessly at any given point of time. It has aided the economy to grow, environmental factor to enrich and standard of living to increase. One of the most prominent presence of the information technology can be seen in the case of the advertisement world. With the rise of the internet and cope of the electronic media in the advertisement sector it can be seen that world has moved largely from simple pamphlets to the sophisticated mode of advertising, where the specially designed tools aid the advertiser to generate market demand, targeted audience details and various other essential parameter of business success through data mining on behalf of the producer (Berger 2015). Under this scenario it has been observed that IT giants like and Google and Facebook has emerged as the market leader with their sophisticated business planning tools and huge amount of market dominance (Financial review 2018). Over the year, their endeavours has made them two essential players in the advertising world, who are now beyond the scope of competition due to their magnanimous amount of operation in the advertising world.
In this context this report is aimed to discuss the performance of the Google and Facebook, two advertising industry giant accused of stealing the freedom of mind by the George Soros. Through this analysis, it is aimed to find, how these brands has curtailed the market in order gain major share in the industry and how it is utilising the same to exploit the consumers as well as the small IT firms. In addition to this, this report will portray the argument of the George Soros through the economic models, which will further explain the performance of the firms in greater details. To conclude it will portray the finding in a summarised form and provide recommendation to deal with the present situation.
George Soros unbolts his argument with the fact that the present world scenario is a painful one and it is most vicious situation, where all the open societies are in crisis and under the different form of dictatorships. In addition to this, the author has argued that not only the dictatorship, in addition to this, mafia in states as the form of the government is one of the rise that has been making the civil society victimised. He vehemently termed the world leaders like Vladimir Putin of Russia, Donald Trump of US and the anarchist leader of North Korea Kim Jong-Un as the source of the mafia regime around the developed nation of the world (Financial review 2018). This has given rise to the unfrequented rise of the monopoly in the various industry and as the clear implication of the same can be found in the case of the advertisement world. As it can be seen that the mafia style state has been on the rise in the different part of the world, however, vibrant civil society around the world has stopped the same. Contrary to this, in the case of the open market scenario, where the market is driven by the capitalist firm, it has evolved the industrial sector into a jeopardised scenario, where the small firms fails to operate freely under the ever developing monopoly power of the large market player. As the instance of the same, the author has showcased the case of the American internet platform, which is contributing largely to the impotence of the government. Through the liberating and innovative role of the media driven IT giants becomes obstacles to innovation and have lea to different problematic situation of the market to operate (Castell 2017). For instance, Google and Facebook are the two market giant in the electronic advertisement sector and they have become so much powerful that it drives the government policies and make them biased towards their own interest (Mazzucato 2015). Other than this, the author argues that all the different sectors around the world are being exploited by the different producers through the different measurements. Through this, the author means that as it can be seen in the case of the oil producing companies, they exploit the consumer and the market with charging higher price, and on the other hand, mining industry exploits the consumer through indirect effect by increasing the price of their goods and service. The point that the author tried to establish here is the fact that, utilising the open world economy and the oligopoly nature of the market, firms set differentiated price for different economy that allows them to enjoy much amount of profit and market share (Holloway 2017).
Google’s Market Dominance
As it can be seen that, Facebook and Google is accounted for more than half of the market share in the advertisement industry that makes them the dominant player in the market (Deighton 2017). In order to maintain dominance in the market, both the firms expands their business over the entire world and shrinks the market for the small entrepreneurs. Through providing convenient platform and providing merely information, these brand argue in favour of open internet market, where the business can nurture with the means of advertisement. Contrary to this, in reality, firms like Google and Facebook, whose revenue largely comes from the advertisement market operate in such a way that they bail out most of the juice out of the firm in the name of advertisement through introducing stringent terms and conditions (Piercy 2016). On the other hand, through a comprehensive and proven platform for advertising, firms are not able to shift their preference from these tech giants to others. Under this scenario, it has become hard for the producer to promote their brand through these platforms. Additionally, it has also been found that there is another emerging market in the platform like Google and Facebook, where these brands are not only indulged in electronic advertising, rather they are actively participating in selling and endorsing good, thus enhancing the profitability and market share further (Wedel et al. 2016). According to the author it is certainly applause able that the brands has harness modern technologies and the different tools to serve the different demand of the customers, however, it has done more bad than good to the overall economy. As it can be seen from the Google’s brain chid Page Rank algorithm has made it a lot more sophisticated search engine that can provide good amount of data return for each search with the AI backed algorithm. On the other hand Facebook with its ever evolving platform bringing more and more tools that can aid the producer to promote and endorse their brand to a broader variety of audience (Parker et al. 2016). On the other hand Google with its android operating system has captured 80% of the mobile world that has made it undefinable competitor in the market. With the sophisticated features, they are able to capture and store data of the users, which can be utilised in future instances. It has encouraged the government and Google to come closer, where they can snoop on the specified person (Leigh and Triggs 2016). It has snatched the personal freedom, where the no individual are free from the scanner of the search earnings like Google. Thus the author to conclude his findings has argues that it is essential for the respective government to take necessary steps at this moment in order to stop the growth of the firm and allow the market to operate freely. Market need to operate under the natural flow depending upon the supply and demand framework (McChesney 2015). It will aid the economy to evolve with much broader growth prospect and allow a healthy competition to grow.
Facebook’s Market Dominance
According to George Soros, Google and Facebook operate in an oligopoly market, where few market players are present, however, market share of the respective firms has made them undeniable market leader. Google with 90.61% market share in the Search Engine Market has become such a player than decides the flow of the market (Jaucap and Heimeshoff 2014). The closest competitor of the Google is the Bing and the next competitor is Yahoo who are accounted for 6% of market share combined making them merely tiny in front of the presence of the Google (Inman and Harbaugh 2016). Utilising the same, Google has gained monopoly power, where it rule the market with the pricing policies. As it can be seen that, Google has large amount of revenue from the advertisement, where it pours much of its revenue. Selling of the goods and servicing is another way to increase the revenue and the profit of the firm and Google utilise the same. From the business operation of the Google it can be seen that the firm operates in such a fashion that it bundles it various services, force the buyers to buy them in bundle and makes their revenue grow. Though the market is oligopoly in nature, yet presence of the large market share of Google has aided it to enjoy monopoly power.
Considering the case of the Facebook it can be seen that the, market is oligopoly in nature too, where it enjoys 79.79% of the market (Van et al. 2016). With their superior products compared to its rivals, Facebook has immerged as one of the greatest social media service that allow the producer to reach a vast amount of consumers. It aids the firms to operate in such a platform, which generate report for them through mining data utilising the different algorithm. It aids the firms to have all the essential information from one place. Contrary to this, through platforms like WordPress is effective media to reach to the newer prospect buyers, however, it fails to provide as much exposure as Facebook provides. Considering the market structure of the Facebook it can be entailed that it is also an oligopoly market, however, it operates in such a way that it is the market leader and enjoys monopoly power over the market. Through the Facebook is an American brand, yet it has surpassed the local boundary within few months of initiation and has reached every corner of the world making it a worldwide brand (Plantin et al. 2016). As per the oligopoly market, it always try to sell their services in bundle that allows the user to confront in front of them and additionally it provides the firm ability to gain much amount of profit. In addition to this, one of the primary benefit of operating in oligopoly market is differentiated pricing that Facebook utilise at its best. It charges differently to different producer in different market allowing the firm to gain much amount of profit. For instance, it uses low price in the Chinese and the Asian market because it wants to gain access to these market where as it price exorbitantly in the American and the UK market, because absence of the competitor and market become saturated with their operation has made the Facebook one and only existing player in the market that possess power to control the market.
Oligopoly Market
Conclusion:
From the above analysis it can be found that the Google and Facebook over the year has certainly evolved to a large extent and it can be seen that the firm has approached the world market in such a way that it can control the entire advertisement market. With the help of the bundled selling procedure and taking advantage from the oligopoly market scenario the brand has become the role model of many IT organisation, however, the sad truth is that it has stopped their growth. Through purchasing or absorbing the business of the several start-ups, Facebook has grew to new regions around the world. On the other hand, Google with its sophisticated technologies, has captured the market over the entire world. One of the main factor that has provided much amount of success to the business is the android platform. Though the firm has recently been accused of indulging into illegal activities in various part of the world, yet it has been successful enough to become the market leader. Under the regime of the electronic advertisement, these brands has snatched the privacy and forced the society to fight for the personal freedom.
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