Do Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple stifle competition? Not surprisingly, the tech giants‘ chief executives will tell Congress: absolutely not. The concern that too much…
Do Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple stifle competition? Not surprisingly, the tech giants‘ chief executives will tell Congress: absolutely not. The concern that too much power is concentrated in too few companies is unfounded, they plan to testify Wednesday.
Amid a time of rising tensions with China, some of the powerful CEOs will suggest that too much regulation could provide an opportunity for Chinese tech firms to gain a global toehold, according to opening remarks from the tech leaders released by the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.
„We believe in values — democracy, competition, inclusion and free expression — that the American economy was built on,“ Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will tell lawmakers, according to his prepared opening statement. „China is building its own version of the internet focused on very different ideas, and they are exporting their vision to other countries.“
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person who will be making his first-ever appearance in front of Congress, will bring in his personal story of being adopted by an immigrant father when he was 4 years old and spending his summers on his grandparents‘ ranch in Texas, saying his upbringing instilled in him a work ethic that has helped Amazon prosper.
Amazon’s rise to becoming the largest online retailer, Bezos will say, is an achievement only made possible in America. But Walmart, he will point out, is still twice the size of Amazon.
„We did not start out as the largest marketplace — eBay was many times our size. It was only by focusing on supporting sellers and giving them the best tools we could invent that we were able to succeed and eventually surpass eBay,“ Bezos says in his released testimony.
Watch the live stream here beginning at noon ET.
Google’s Sundar Pichai will steer attention to the other ways people navigate the online world, even though 90% of Internet searches happen on Google.
