It’s no secret that big tech companies are slowly taking over the world, with Facebook now owning more than one social media outlet, Amazon bringing down all their competition because anyone with internet access can quite literally buy everything on their website, and Google also becoming the next big thing with their search engine, e-mail service, tablets and laptops.
These days people are relying more and more on outlets such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and particularly Amazon. On Amazon you can easily order clothing, tech gear, and now even groceries.
The social media sites that Facebook owns, Instagram and WhatsUp, are being used on a daily basis because it’s a way for people to communicate with others.
Politicians like Elizabeth Warren are aiming to break down Big Tech and their habit of taking away customers from small businesses trying to grow, but it doesn’t seem possible to bring these companies down or affect the way they function.
For one reason, people around the world rely on Big Tech. Throughout the years, we’ve all come to terms with the fact that technology is the future. Companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, and even Apple grow each day because of us – the consumers.
There are some great points that Elizabeth Warren has made about Amazon taking all the business and leaving small business owners in the dust. Big companies such as Amazon do cater to people wanting to sell on their site, but the user has to search through pages to find those small businesses, making it inconvenient. The algorithm makes sure the first thing that pops up whenever you’re searching for whatever you want is products that are similar but are being sold by Amazon. It is something she seeks to change by forbidding companies with over $25 billion in annual global revenue from both owning the platform and also participating as a seller on that platform.
According to The New York Times, Elizabeth Warren isn’t the only presidential candidate running in the 2020 election who has voiced their opinion about Big Tech and their desire to break it up. It’s a situation that is catching a lot of people’s attention and making them question how it’s fair that the bigger businesses are the ones really rising, while the smaller ones aren’t.
Perhaps with it now gaining traction with many democratic voters, something can be done. There might be some talk on how we can improve the situation, but it may take some time to really put these ideas into action.
People go onto Amazon to shop for things because they think they can trust the sellers on there since their transactions are being brokered through a big company. There would have be a monumental uproar from not just the sellers, but also from the consumers, against how Big Tech is running this side of the industry to enact real change.
According to The Intercept, putting Warren’s ideas of breaking up Big Tech to the test could change the ways of how we online shop and possibly how we even use the smartphones we own, two things that they shouldn’t want to happen. Many businesses could possibly see their end come sooner than expected if the big changes that Warren wants to implement actually happen. Online shopping has changed the way of the world and has made shopping much easier, so if it were to be changed for the worse, then it’d take away from the convenience of taking out a smartphone or laptop to do some shopping.
If the plans that Warren wants to put into place are made immediately, the firms it would to affect the most wouldn’t be Apple. Apple only sells their own apps on their app store; it is difficult to see how they would go out of business if they have to stop selling similar apps sold by other manufacturers. When it comes to downloading apps and purchasing things, consumers just want to ensure they’re downloading something safe and purchasing from a seller that they can trust. So in other words, those that are already widely known for being safe, and that’s Apple.
While it is definitely a problem that big tech companies are hogging business for themselves at the expense of smaller businesses, it’s a problem that doesn’t have an easy fix. Many of the changes that would have to occur would be wildly unpopular. Unfortunately, someone has to hold all the power and in this case, those companies are Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google.
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