“Google is a monopoly and has acted as a monopoly to maintain its monopoly.” Justice Amit P. Mehta wrote: Last month he ruled in the biggest monopoly case of the century, talking up Google's illegal dominance of online search. 90% You're likely to use Google every time you search, and the judge agreed that Google controlled the market through threats and secret deals with rivals.
But Mehta could have been talking about Google's dominance of online advertising. Separate Antitrust Cases (ongoing), online shopping, and many other areas of our digital lives.
YouTube is now so big that it's reportedly willing to take losses in some markets while it waits for its competitors to fade.
One Google asset that hasn't received enough attention from regulators but deserves closer scrutiny is YouTube, the global leader in online video. More 100 million Americans scroll through it, but at home they can also watch it on their phones, computers, streaming boxes, gaming consoles and even the TV itself.
How did YouTube grow so fast? Unfortunately, the answer, like so many other areas in which Google operates, appears to be: by squeezing competitors and squeezing consumers.
of The Washington Post YouTube has recently been called “America's most influential technology” as it has evolved beyond just a mobile app. The world's second largest search engineNext comes Google. listen to music More than Spotify or radio. The company's CEO describes the living room as “YouTube's New Frontier” More viewers already watch YouTube on their TVs than any other streaming service.
In just seven years, YouTube has Pay TV services It has grown from nothing to become the third largest company in the U.S. behind Charter and Comcast. By 2026, No.1 in subscription TV And I'm looking forward to it Doubling again before it reaches its peak.
YouTube's huge advertising business 45 cents for every dollar spent on advertisinggenerate Revenue: $31 billion Last year, the company expanded its web, apps, streaming services and 110 million Google TV sets and devices. For people who hate ads 100 Million Subscribers pay $22.99/month You can watch it without ads. Either way, YouTube benefits.
While size isn't illegal, YouTube's path to dominance may be. YouTube has violently removed companies that wanted to be part of its ecosystem. Prohibited Third Party Advertising Software“They killed our growth and killed our product,” said Brian O'Kelly, former CEO of AppNexus. YouTube copied Machinima's creator-friendly content network model, Pushed off the platformOn the consumer side, YouTube is working tirelessly to Remove ad blockers, Subscription fee increase, Extended ad breaks, Extended Ads Expanding to more platforms, Can't skip.
YouTube has become a very big thing now. Losing money The company is waiting for competitors to die out in some markets (“That's how monopolies work,” O'Kelly says), and is using its vast amounts of data about how people use the internet, including data collected by Google, to make more money. Without permissiondelivering better ad targeting than any other company in the world. Online ShoppingCompeting against streaming video competitors TikTok. and Like Google itselfYouTube is Relying heavily on AI.
YouTube has grown so big that it often ignores copyright, privacy and child safety laws. A million hours Training YouTube videos without creators' permission violates YouTube's own rules, and U.S. regulators fined Google for this in 2019. $170 million YouTube violates children's privacy laws Children and teensYouTube's algorithm serves content to 9-year-olds Hundreds of gun violence videos The company claims to remove thousands of channels per hour for violating its rules, but thousands still go unremoved, and weak enforcement leads to legitimate channels being mistakenly taken down.
Other countries have already taken action against YouTube. European Union antitrust regulators It has investigated YouTube and the new complaint accuses it of violating EU rules. Privacy LawSouth Korean regulators have described the company asExclusive” and Considering actionMeanwhile, U.S. regulators have yet to subject YouTube to the scrutiny it deserves.
Companies cannot be allowed to use their market power to thwart free markets, crush potential competitors, and raise prices with impunity. But Google appears to be doing just that with YouTube, just as it has done with online search and online advertising. It is time for the U.S. Department of Justice to subject YouTube to the same thorough scrutiny it has rightly applied to Google's other monopolies.
