Faced with the antitrust pressure, Google starts to launch its own argument too big to fail



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Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty)

In Silicon Valley, as billboards demand the dismantling of major technologies, Google and Facebook leaders continue to argue that the gigantic size of their companies is a key asset in the new technological cold war between the United States and the United States. and China.

In an interview with CNN this week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai tried to solve the problem of antitrust laws by showing what they saw as the line of sight of the size: Big beats China. Faced with intensifying pressure for antitrust action, the argument has been called the technological version of "too big to fail."

"Scale offers many benefits, it's important to understand that," said Google CEO Sundar Pichai. "As a company, we sometimes invest five or ten years in advance without necessarily worrying about short-term profits. If you think about how technology leadership contributes to leadership at the global economic scale. These are the big companies that invest the most in AI. There are many benefits to taking a long-term view that large companies are capable of doing. "

Pichai, who admitted that this scrutiny and competition are ultimately good things, argued arguments that echoed the arguments put forward by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who explained it much more frankly.

"I think you have this question from a political point of view, namely:" Do we want US companies to export worldwide? "Zuckerberg said last year. "I think the alternative, frankly, will be the Chinese companies."

Pichai never said "China", but he did not have to. Chinese industry booming and increasingly tense relations with the United States

"Many countries around the world aspire to become the next Silicon Valley. And they also support their businesses, "Pichai told CNN. "So we have to balance both. This does not mean that you do not scrutinize large companies. But you must also strike a balance between the fact that you want big, successful companies. "

This is one of Silicon Valley's surest arguments since the antitrust sentiment began to gain ground in the United States. But the history of US industry offers a serious counterweight.

Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu has spent much of the year 2018 exposing the case for antitrust action. He has written a book on the subject, The Curse of Bigness: The Antitrust to the New Golden Age, and has appeared in all media to argue his case. In an editorial for the New York Times, Wu recalled the stormy contest of Japanese-American technologies of the 1980s.

NEC of Japan has taken up an unprecedented international challenge in the mainframe market, while Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba have made giant strides. The companies had the strong support of the Japanese government.

Wu explained what happened next:

Had the United States followed the logic of Zuckerberg, we would have protected and promoted IBM, AT & T and other American tech giants – the national champions of the 1970s. Instead, the federal government has blamed leading US technology companies to curb competition. IBM has been subject to a devastating antitrust investigation and prosecution for 13 years and the Department of Justice divided AT & T into eight in 1984. Indeed, this had the effect of weakening some of America's most powerful technology companies at a key moment of competition. with a foreign power.

But something else has happened too. Under constant surveillance by IBM and AT & T, a whole series of industries and companies emerged without fear of being crushed by a monopoly. The American software industry, liberated from IBM, was born, giving birth to companies such as Microsoft, Sun and Lotus. Personal computers from Apple and other companies have become popular and, after the dissolution of AT & T, companies such as CompuServe and America Online have rushed into online networking, ultimately producing what we call now "the economy of the Internet".

Silicon Valley's argument resonates, however. The 80s are not the 2010s, and relations between China and the United States are now considerably colder and more complex than those of Japan and the United States three decades ago.

US politicians have echoed some of the major technology concerns about Chinese leadership.

The Congress has just opened what promises to be a lengthy antitrust investigation into advanced technology that barely speaks of China.

"Concentration on the digital advertising market has pushed local journalism to the brink of extinction," said Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island.

US lawmakers are planning further hearings, depositions, interviews and subpoenas over the next 18 months, according to The New York Times.

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