Internet platform economy giants such as Alibaba Group (Alibaba) and Tencent Computer Systems Ltd (Tencent), as well as Google Inc. and Apple Inc. may be subject to antitrust scrutiny. People's online car reservations may no longer be subject to unwarranted price increases, people's online credit will enjoy lower interest rates, e-commerce transactions and instant messaging accounts will no longer be blocked for no reason, and people's privacy will no longer be a tool for others to sell for profit.
On November 10, the State Administration for Market Supervision and Regulation published the "Anti-Monopoly Guidelines on the Field of Platform Economy (Exposure Draft)" (hereinafter referred to as the Guidelines), and unfair competition behaviors, such as "platforms second choice" and "big data to kill maturity," etc. will face stricter regulation. Affected by the policy, network technology stocks plummeted for a while, with Alibaba falling 9.8% on the same day. Tencent Holdings fell 7.39%. The rest of the stocks involved in online technology have also retreated. It is avoiding technology and innovation to go to its opposite.
On November 10, the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration (SAMSA) published the "Anti-Monopoly Guidelines on the Field of Platform Economy (Draft)", which calls for regulating and restricting monopolistic behaviors in the platform economy. (China's State Market Supervision and Administration website)
What is the Platform Economy Anti-Monopoly
The platform economy as defined in the guideline refers to an economic form in which an Internet platform coordinates and organizes the allocation of resources. According to the guidelines, for the platform economic field operators abuse market dominance to reach monopoly agreement behavior, will be antitrust review, and can not define the relevant market, directly recognized as monopoly behavior. This includes both horizontal monopoly agreements between platform operators and vertical monopoly agreements between platform operators and merchants and consumers.
People are familiar with the "Jingdong, Tmall war" forced merchants "platform two choose one", as well as "big data to kill familiarization" for the dependence of the higher degree of users to increase the price of goods, service fees behavior will be penalized. The behavior of the "big data to kill familiarity" to increase the price of goods and service fees for highly dependent users will be punished. Massive subsidized sales below cost to capture the market and then massive price increases will be reviewed. The behavior of multiple platforms secretly joining together to unify prices to disrupt the market, or blocking merchants and competitors will be prohibited. In addition, inappropriate use of consumer data to the detriment of consumer interests, as well as the use of existing platforms of market dominance to acquire startups, emerging platforms leading to the impact of technological progress, will also be included in the antitrust review.
As penalties and remedies, in addition to general exhortations and penalties, the guidelines also stipulate that restrictive measures such as mandatory opening of infrastructure such as networks or platforms, licensing of key technologies, termination of exclusive agreements, and modification of platform rules or algorithms; and even structural restrictions such as divestiture of tangible assets, intellectual property rights, technologies, and data, can be adopted. In other words, for serious violations of anti-monopoly law, disturbing the market order, infringing on consumer interests, and jeopardizing the public **** security of the Internet platform enterprises, will likely face the fate of being transferred or split.
The current guidelines are just a statement of principle and lack detail. But it's enough to give businesses and the Internet economy a sense of direction. It's an attempt to draw a line between the Internet economy and social rights.
Internet monopolies have become rich
Innovation is for innovation, capital is for capital, and the public is for the public. This is of course an ideal situation. But there was no such law at the beginning of the rise of the Internet economy. This allowed Internet businesses to grow rapidly on the one hand, and led to the formation of online capital monopolies on the other.
Currently, nearly 70% of the top 30 applications (APPs) on the mobile Internet are divided between two Internet companies, Tencent and Alibaba. To some extent, the monopoly pattern of the Internet platform economy has been formed.
Alibaba's system has more than 73% of the business volume of the courier industry, not only has the largest private logistics network enterprise "Cainiao network", is in addition to SF Express, the main shareholder of the top 6 courier enterprises. Internet finance is the formation of Alibaba system ant group a dominant situation. And tencent is accounted for network social networking, network entertainment and game industry monopoly. Tencent's WeChat APP, "King of Glory" game, Tencent video are basically national-level applications.
In addition to the network field, Alibaba and Tencent will also expand their business from online to offline, from network platform services to market innovation investment. Currently the top ten large supermarkets have 7 by Tencent and Alibaba shares, or even holding. Of the more than 500 unicorn companies in the world, the Tencent system has invested in more than 50, while the Alibaba system has invested in more than 40. Meituan and Dripping Taxi are well-known investment projects of Tencent and Alibaba. They have almost monopolized the restaurant takeaway and online car industry respectively.
It can be said that everyone from online to offline has been inseparable from Alibaba and Tencent and other Internet platform enterprises. Alibaba and Tencent's successful technological innovation, entrepreneurship and capital operation have played a great role in promoting technological progress and economic development.
At the same time, the wealth of Alibaba and Tencent is also rapidly expanding. At present, a rough estimate of Alibaba's own market value has reached 5.6 trillion yuan, plus its equity holdings of listed companies, investment in unicorn enterprises valued at a total of up to 10.8 trillion yuan. If the ant group is not suspended listing, its market value will also reach 2.1 trillion yuan. Tencent's own market value of about 4.6 trillion yuan, plus its participation in the holding of listed companies, investment in unicorn enterprise valuation of a total of up to 11.8 trillion yuan, really rich.
As early as June 2020, Apple has also been subjected to antitrust investigations from the EU. Antitrust for online tech and platform companies has become the world's **** knowledge.
The end of the barbaric era
But the end of the barbaric era is the end of the barbaric era
But the end of the barbaric era. Like most of the monopolies that have formed a market dominance, whether state-owned or private, the big business disease brought about by the lack of progress, bureaucratization, lower quality of service, as well as the monopoly caused by the obstruction of competition and the expansion of ambition, these problems and crises in the Internet giants are also revealed undoubtedly.
The use of market dominance and capital advantage, low-cost dumping and high subsidies to suppress competitors, the formation of monopoly and then wantonly increase prices; the use of big data for price discrimination, the so-called "big data to kill maturity"; the use of a large number of consumers in the hands of the data, privacy, family relations, property analysis, on the one hand, to the relevant manufacturers, and on the other hand, to the Internet giants.
At the same time, by utilizing its dominant position in the upstream and downstream industry chain, the company charges merchants high platform occupancy fees on one hand, and on the other hand, jointly raises prices for consumers on other platforms; it also develops "kingpin clauses" in favor of the platforms, and on the one hand, forces merchants to "choose one or the other" among the various platforms. "The company's main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers, and to provide the best possible service to its customers in the marketplace.
And with the accumulation of funds on the Internet platform companies, gradually formed the use of customer idle funds for financial business and credit products. A variety of consumer loans, interest rates as high as 15% of the small and micro-enterprise loans, high-leverage, low-capital unlimited revolving credit has become the Internet platform fast convergence mode. This innovation in financial technology has laid a huge financial security risk to the economy. Overdraft consumption, financial speculation, illegal money laundering, underground money laundering, etc. are all in the cover of financial technology.
The public interest, market vitality and national security are being increasingly infringed upon by platform monopolies and network capital. How to tend to avoid harm, so that the Internet technology, Internet finance for the real economy; to protect the public's information and data security, to safeguard the interests of consumers has become the inevitable development of the Internet. And as data itself has become a new production factor, the huge wealth behind it has been recognized by the public. How to make these data wealth originally belonging to the public to be enjoyed by the public has also become a new topic of social wealth distribution.
The Antitrust Guidelines on Platform Economy (Draft for Public Comments) are also a step-by-step process of standardization and exploration. It is hoped that the boundaries of innovation, capital and social rights will be gradually delineated, which is conducive to encouraging innovation and stabilizing capital expectations. Just as there are time limits and public interest restrictions on intellectual property rights, the data economy also needs to form a corresponding mechanism. The era of savage growth of the Internet economy is over. This is as simple as the reasoning that just because someone discovered coal, he or she must always possess the entire coal industry revenue.