Meir Brand, the CEO of Google Israel emphasized that the search engine giant is not a monopoly and it will never ever become one despite the fact that it possess a huge amount of data it collects.
During an interview with Amir Teig of The Marker, an Israeli business daily, Brand pointed out, “The internet is the most competitive venue that has ever existed.” According to him, Google is not and never will be a monopoly.
Allegations against Google
Earlier this year, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Google for allegedly monopolizing the internet and mobile search market in the United States. Based on the lawsuit, Google established an illegal monopoly after acquiring Android operating system, which dominates the global smartphone market.
According to IDC, Android had 84% market share in the global smartphone market in the third-quarter of 2014.
Google’s competitors such as Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) also alleged that it is a monopoly. Last year, Microsoft’s former CEO Steve Ballmer said it was difficult to compete and gain profit in the consumer cloud business because Google monopolized the market.
For years, the search engine giant had been facing antitrust investigation from the European Union. Last month, the newly appointed EU Antitrust Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager said the commission will limit its investigation on the allegations against the search engine giant on problems related to competition.
Google may not remain forever as the biggest data company
Currently, Google is undeniably the biggest data company worldwide, but Brand indicated the possibility that the position of the search engine giant may not remain forever.
Brand said pointed out during the interview that nothing is forever citing. Nokia Corporation (NOK) is an example. The Finnish company was one the largest phone company and its growth seemed infinite. However, it is no longer on the top as it was surpassed by Apple Inc (AAPL) and other smartphone manufacturers.
According to Brand, there a possibility that Google will experience a similar fate that happened to AT&T Inc. (T), which was once the largest telecommunications company, which was forced by regulators to break-up its “baby bells” in the early 1980s to promote competition.
Brand emphasized the regulators do more harm than good. He thinks the Israelis understand what he meant. According to him, regulation is not just harmful for Google, but also to the many businesses that generates income through te search engine giant.
“We send ten billion links a month to content sites. Those referrals help sites sell and earn money; if there were no users, there would be no one to sell to. We also help them monetize traffic – last month we made $9 billion for content sites,” said Brand.
He added, “It’s true that we have made a strong foray into mobile phones with our Android operating system, but the jury is still out on whether it will become the long-term standard.”
Furthermore, Brand noted that the competition is no longer on the desktop. He said, “We may be the strongest on the desktop web, but the battle for domination in mobile is still very open-ended. With the world moving to mobile we are finding it hard to determine who the winner is going to be.”
