On Tuesday, March 22nd, the White House released the Economic Report of the President (ERP), a full chapter of which is devoted to Competition in the Digital Economy.
The ERP summarises that the promised benefits of the internet have been undermined by over-concentration.
Digital markets should be a great vehicle for innovation: they improve transparency across supply chains, and can increase competition across a wider area providing greater choice and opportunity for price and quality comparisons. However, as the report notes, no one wants to be on a social network that isn’t used by their friends, and network effects and data imbalances can be used by those with market power to increase the barriers for entry resulting in “winner takes all” market failure.
See the full report here.
For further thoughts please see Preiskel & Co’s post here.