The new crown epidemic has improved the image of technology companies and consolidated their market power. Legislators should pay attention to the concentration of corporate concentration and prevent technology giants from being dominant.
For a long time, people have been talking about the future of the digital, but the new coronary virus pneumonia (COVID-19, the 2019 coronary virus) epidemic has made us a big step closer to it.For millions of people, in the new reality of opening social distance, technology is the lifeline.Consumers who were forced to stay at home watched the Netflix program, placed orders from Amazon, and opened video conferences on Zoom.In the United States, less than 5%of food grocery purchases before the crisis were performed online, but now this proportion has soared to 10%to 15%.Zoom said that the peak of its video conferences in April this year was 30 times that of December last year.
Some of them may fade after the blocking.But the changes in the field of remote work, learning and shopping are amazing.As Microsoft CEO Satia Bull; Satya Nadella recently said: We have witnessed the digital transformation of two years within two months.The role played by large technology companies during the crisis is reflected in their soaring stock prices, and investors bet their business models.Five large -scale technology stocks now account for more than one -fifth of the market value of the S & P 500 Index (SP 500); in terms of concentration, this is a modern record.
For these companies, this crisis not only consolidates their market forces, but also provides an opportunity to show them that they can become responsible enterprise citizens.This epidemic highlights the advantages of these digital platforms in terms of social and economic aspects. They help combat false information about the new epidemic situation and respond to e -commerce boom.At the same time, governments of various countries seeks the help of large technology companies to develop contactors to track applications.
In the short term, the growth of the industry seems unlikely to be suppressed.Many large companies are using crisis to become greater.Data show that Da Technology Corporation is looking for transactions at the fastest speed since 2015.Especially the expansion of Amazon seems to have no boundaries; this e -commerce giant is negotiating on the acquisition of the autonomous car company ZOOX, and its investment in the food delivery service company Deliveroo has been approved by the British regulatory agency because the regulatory agency is worried that the company is concerned about the house.Start -ups may go bankrupt.
As many people are eager to limit the dominant position of large online platforms, all these situations have brought some tricky challenges to policy makers.Although it is necessary to take action than before, the politics of Techlash has become more complicated.This requires the regulatory agency to make a detailed response.
A field that should have been reforming is still antitrust.In the United States, the standard of antitrust legislation has not changed since the 1980s, and it still focuses on harm to consumers.In the world of digital services, the focus needs to be transferred to the market structure and corporate concentration.In this regard, the European Commission leads the United States.In April last year, a report commissioned by the European Union called for a threshold for anti -monopoly rules for market leaders.The European Commission solicited opinions on Tuesday on its flagship digital platform regulatory bill.It has always hoped to have more power to examine how companies use consumer data.
US legislators hope that a sign of Brussels is to be that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are promoting some bills to ensure that any data collected by the new crown epidemic cannot be used for other purposes.However, another factors in regulatory debates are the increasingly tense relationship between China and the United States.The Cold War may inspire Washington's desire to cultivate national champion companies.In addition, coupled with the improvement of the image brought by the new crown epidemic to technology companies, it may prevent curbing their coordinated and consistent actions, but legislators should be vigilant.A generation of bold and innovative subverters.
Translator/Pei Pan
