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Attorneys General of the states investigating Google want to take a closer look at the advertising practices of the technology giant.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – who heads the new antitrust investigation led by Attorneys General of 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico – said the investigation would focus on the advertising sector of Google ", but the facts will lead where the facts lead." At a press conference on Monday, attorneys general emphasized Google's dominance in the advertising market and the use of data related to consumers.
Then, Bloomberg announced Tuesday that an "investigation request" had been issued by officials looking for information about the acquisitions of advertising technology companies such as DoubleClick by Google, its practices of data collection, pricing models, etc.
Google's ad industry is sprawling. According to eMarketer, Google will exceed 20% of US online and offline advertising spend this year. Google captures 74.6% of spending on search ads in the United States. And the company is expected to dominate the digital advertising market in the United States with a 37.2 percent market share, for a total of $ 48.05 billion this year. EMarketer added that Facebook ranked second with a 22.1% market share.
Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, a professional association of digital content companies (including CNBC and parent company NBCUniversal), said he was pleased to see regulatory authorities at the state level and in the US. from other countries, focus on the same concerns. He added that the regulators had a more advanced understanding of Google's activities and the important role played by this company in buying, selling and auctioning ads.
"I think regulators are better prepared to understand why some of these issues are problematic," he told CNBC.
Kint said the regulators were beginning to question the fact that Google had no real competitor in technologies located along the links of the digital media supply chain, such as technologies that decide the type of offers to make for announcements or negotiation between buyers. and the sales side.
"They have the ability to look at the data throughout the supply chain," he said.
According to the Bloomberg report, investigators want more information about Google's rules, including requiring companies wishing to advertise on one of their platforms to use their own services and indicating if their customers complain about these requirements.
The survey could focus on Google's behavior in some sectors related to the digital market. With the job search tool, Google is facing an investigation following claims that it is chasing competitors out of the market. Google places its own widget at the top of job searches, which could prevent users from accessing sites such as Monster.com or Indeed. An advertising agency manager, who requested anonymity, added that this type of information was also valuable for Google to stay within it. "Google then gets a lot of information about you if you are really looking for a job," he said.
According to the Bloomberg report, investigators are asking for information on how Google shares data with other companies and tracking behavioral data on its web browser, which could indicate an interest in privacy in addition to competition.
Google's entry into travel bookings is another area that has been scrutinized. Google tends to prioritize its own listings for travel searches, such as flights or hotel rooms. Some travel search sites have faced increasing costs and a declining performance of Google search.
In his call on the results of the second quarter, the CEO of Tripadvisor answered questions about headwinds in the field of SEO, or search engine optimization.
"There is an effect of Google and other search engines that are moving more and more into the travel industry and it's a bit of a headwind for the hotels we've called," said CEO Steve Kaufer. "It's getting harder and harder because Google is pushing its own products, and by the way, we think it's quite appropriate for regulators to look at this practice," he added.
Booking.com said in a recent call for results that he was facing the same ROI issues with performance marketing.
The survey could also determine the damage done to consumers by prioritizing certain information.
Yelp's vice president of public policy, Luther Lowe, said in a company blog an example of a mother doing a search for a pediatrician in Mountain View, California. "Instead of seeing the best information available on the Web, Google is directing it to its low-quality home-grown products," he wrote, citing a Wall Street Journal report of Google Maps ads driving consumers to false lists. "This form of selfish bias causes direct harm to consumers on an incredible scale," he wrote.
Experts say that the survey will probably take years. But Lowe said that he thought it would bring real change.
"I can not imagine a scenario in which Alphabet does not emerge from this company as a completely different society and whose behavior is subject to scrutiny," he said. "[It will] have to work in a very different way. "
Asked to comment, Google highlighted an article last week written by its vice president of international affairs, Kent Walker, entitled "Google's services create a choice for consumers and drive innovation in the United States" . The message indicates that the company has been answering questions about Google's services for many years, has "always worked constructively with regulators" and will continue to do so.
"We are eager to show how we are investing in innovation, providing the services people want, and participating in strong and fair competition," he said.
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