Hacker News

points by badreligion42 14 hours ago | 0 comments

Monopolies hold because companies engage in foul play to hold their monopolies. When Google goes out and pays Apple billions to default to Google Search, that is not a regulatory hurdle, nor is Google using its position as the Android platform maintainer and bundling Google Search with Play Services.

[–] phyzix5761 12 hours ago

How is that foul play? Companies pay other companies to be the exclusive X all the time. For example, Coca-Cola bought an exclusive right to the only soft drink brand at all Fifa games. There are other examples like Nike being the official uniform of the NFL (including fan purchases), Windows paying computer manufacturers to be the default OS on PCs, and Netflix paying TV makers to have a Netflix button on the remotes for the TVs.

[–] flatline 13 hours ago

I'm really torn between these two perspectives. You are not wrong about monopolies. And yet, when Google and Apple struck that deal I thought, thank god I will not be forced into using whatever Apple has to offer up as a search product.

[–] wrathofquan 13 hours ago

¿Por qué no los dos?

You can have shady corporate behavior and regulatory practices enabling each other.