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In late July, a congressional subcommittee had four CEOs of major technology companies formally answer questions about allegedly monopolistic business practices, a public spectacle marred only by the isolation of attendees related to COVID-19. Amazon, Facebook, and Google all faced some of the heaviest questions, but Apple certainly didn’t walk away untouched, as it was peppered with evidence that its App Store was abusing its increasingly dominant position within the software industry. software.
The “Online Platforms and Market Power” audience is important because it paved the way for formal antitrust action against four of the world’s largest companies, technology or otherwise. Individually and collectively, they reach billions of people, with a massive impact on the hardware, software, and services that businesses and end users rely on every day. While the four tech giants describe themselves as good ambitious players, their actions certainly have negative consequences.
Today, a group of developers announced the formation of a Coalition for App Fairness, initially backed by heavy hitters such as Basecamp, Epic Games, Match Group, Spotify, and Tile, as well as the European Publishers Council, News Media Europe, and several other founding members. Having filed individual complaints with regulators in the US and Europe, the group is now holding “Apple to account” for price increases and other anti-competitive policies after “almost a decade without supervision, regulation or fair competition. “.
What is Apple’s latest response to these claims? New marketing. A new promotional page for the App Store implies that the public simply does not understand how benevolent Apple really is, and if they realized how much the company protects users against false and unsafe content, a 30% cut in sales. developers might not look like it. offensive.
If this sounds familiar, it is because Facebook is also floating in the defense of “we are misunderstood.” Empowering deeply disruptive disinformation and disinformation campaigns? Perhaps! But you have no idea how worst it could have been. It’s a clever stop: don’t worry about what we’re doing wrong; just focus on what we’re doing right
So today, Apple wants you to know that the 1.8 million apps in the App Store could have been more bloated (over 2 million apps were removed due to lack of support for the latest Apple operating systems) and even dangerous. Hundreds of real humans review and promote apps, Apple says, rejecting more than 1 million submissions for “objectionable, harmful, unsafe or illegal content,” and in 2020 alone, removing “more than 60 million user reviews that were posted. considered spam. ” Using an automated system, Apple also scanned 100% of applications for known malware, preventing them from spreading viruses to users’ devices.
While these data points are interesting, they don’t do much to address the concerns that have irritated developers and regulators. Imagine a merchant responding to allegations of vendor intimidation by pointing out how nice your store is. “My store doesn’t sell dirty stuff,” you might say, “and all of my employees, from salespeople to stockists, work hard to keep it clean. We even throw away things that we can no longer sell. If you don’t like my store or my rules, shop elsewhere. “
That’s all well and good, but the regulatory angst isn’t really about the pleasant App Store shopping experience. It’s about how Apple deals with developers and how they, in turn, feel pressured to substantially increase their prices, ultimately to the detriment of consumers.
No matter how nice the Apple Store looks and feels, the simple fact is that most of their customers don’t have the option to buy compatible apps elsewhere. Apple has blocked rival app stores on all of its devices except Macs. And in some cases, it has forced cross-platform services to increase the amounts they charge some or all of their customers just to cover Apple’s 30% cut. . The only question has been whether that shows up visibly as a 30% higher charge only to Apple users or if it infiltrates as a 15% higher charge spread across all customers of the service, regardless of platform.
Apple also suggests that it earns that full 30% by providing developers with all kinds of tools to fill the virtual shelves of the App Store. It doesn’t mention that it also charges developers an annual fee, one that is arguably artificially small, to access those tools, or that you may need to be sued to prevent you from abruptly withdrawing one or all of the accounts of a developer who doesn’t. cooperate in the store. if you possibly misuse those tools, even jeopardizing the developer’s global business outside of the App Store.
Arguably, the stakes are even higher for Facebook. Most people know that the Facebook social network now reaches almost 3 billion users worldwide. But users are only beginning to find out to what extent Facebook and third parties have abused their personal data, even recently, despite previous mea guilts. A related concern is that apparently any business or political organization can use Facebook advertising and paid promotional platforms to spread information or misinformation to as many people as they can afford to target, an issue with massive public policy and health consequences that Facebook has only addressed. half. .
Following a $ 5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission for deception regarding consumer data collected from PCs and mobile devices, nine state and DC attorneys general are currently investigating “whether Facebook’s actions may have put compromised consumer data, reduced the quality of consumer choices, or increased the price of advertising. ” Undeterred, Facebook hopes that mixed reality will be the computing platform of the future, and to that end, it is completely subsuming its Oculus mixed reality business, once separately managed. A recent email revealed that Facebook will officially take legal responsibility for all Oculus user data and platforms on October 11.
Facebook and Apple don’t get along; Its CEOs have traded on the monetization of users and the respective merits of their platforms. But at this point, neither CEOs nor their companies deserve the benefit of being called misunderstood. Facebook has an incredible social platform and great virtual reality hardware offset by massive and growing privacy and misinformation issues. Apple creates beautiful products, but makes pennies to the developers and consumers who support it.
Each of these companies is too big to fail. But they should also be too big to keep playing such petty, anti-consumer games. Far from being misunderstood, Apple and Facebook have given the public enough time to realize who they are and what they are capable of, positive and negative. Excuses and marketing are not going to change that; It’s time for these tech giants to look inward and embrace more sustainable business practices. If they do not begin to act reasonably on their own, regulators are clearly willing to act on behalf of users sooner rather than later.
