Greed and Abuse by Major Tech Monopolies

 

The emergence of Tech monopolies will soon come to an end. 

Their first error was to exploit their dominance to influence free and fair exchange of ideas.This is evil, and will require the removal of their privilege and government support.

Second is their inability to resist unethical business practices.

Happily they will increasingly come under serious and effective attack from other successful entrepreneurs.

If the tech giants, had continued to serve free people fairly, they would not have brought about their pending downfall (frank)

This here below is a news item, I received in email from an investment newsletter:

"Fortnite leads an epic movement against Apple and Google's 30% App Tax

"Fortnite-maker Epic Games started a Battle Royale on Thursday by adding its own in-app payment system to bypass the "App Tax." The privately-owned video game maker, worth over $17B after a fresh fundraise this month, knowingly defied the App Store Empire:

"Apple and Google take a 30% cut of in-app purchases, downloads, and subscriptions from non-Apple/Google apps.
Fortnite hates that. So it added its own in-app payment option, offering a 20% discount to players who used that instead of Apple/Google's. In response...

"Apple and Google expelled Fortnite from their app stores for violating rules by bypassing the 30% fee. Then, Epic promptly filed War and Peace-sized lawsuits against both tech giants. It also dropped a Pixar-worthy video to troll Apple: "Nineteen-Eighty Fortnite."

"Don't hate the player... hate the platform-player. Epic's lawsuits try to establish the App and Play stores as competition-crushing monopolies. This isn't a revolutionary call-out: for years, Apple has been getting heat for being a player in a marketplace it also controls. The Fruit has been accused of playing favorites with its own apps.

"Epic's bold PR campaign is drawing more scrutiny than ever on Apple and Google's app store dominance. Facebook, Spotify, and Tinder-owner Match have come out in support of Epic against the “App Store tax.”

"If Epic wins, Apple and Google might have to reduce or remove their fees. Apple made ~$15B in sales from the App Store last year (around 5% of its total sales).
THE TAKEAWAY

"The App Store isn’t just a marketplace — it’s more like a public utility... We use apps to communicate, travel, shop, and eat. Google's Android controls 85% of the global operating system market, while Apple's iOS has 15% — every mobile app goes through their stores. These stores have created an explosion of opportunity for developers, but with caveats: Developers have to swallow Apple/Google's 30% sales tax on the mobile economy. Even Apple TV takes a 30% cut of $30 digital rentals for Disney's Mulan. All that could change with Epic's movement."

When will lucky nerds learn to resist avarice and lust for power? And instead actually want to help and serve free people?