What comparison shopping tells us about Android
Google continues to generate almost 90% of its revenues from advertising. To maximise revenues, the company has many strategies to attract traffic and collect data from users so that its adverts are better targeted and gain more exposure. However, some of these strategies have landed Google in hot water with the European Commission (EC) and other authorities around the globe.
In June 2017, the EC fined Google a record €2.42bn for stifling competition in comparison shopping markets. The EC has also issued a statement of objections in a long-running competition investigation into Google’s Android mobile operating system. Whereas the nature of the abuses in the two cases differs, there is some overlap between the approaches to market definition and dominance. This article explores the implications of the EC’s analysis in the probe into comparison shopping for the Android inquiry.