One big thing
It's not a good week when the government sues you. But for Google, they’d been expecting it for some time. At the heart of the lawsuit is Google's Search deal with Apple (read our piece on the first time Apple built a search engine). Two big firms collaborating and billions changing hands.
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The suit by DOJ and 11 states accuses Google of using anticompetitive tactics to illegally monopolize the online search and search advertising markets, using exclusionary deals with phone makers and other tactics to lock in its search as a default.
For antitrust to be effective, they have to demonstrate a monopoly position in a clearly defined market. And this is often the point of contention, per our piece on Apple's other search products, there is a LOT of searches that happen outside Google. They just happen to be good at one part.
This puts in threat the deal they have with Apple worth billions but also FireFox who relies on hundreds of millions from Google. For search results, we may see a change from Google highlighting their own products. However, antitrust action takes years, so we’re not likely to see anything soon. Axios crystal balled what the next few steps will look like.
Steve Ballmer offered some words of advice a few weeks ago, and that was to engage the regulators. See what they actually want. As what’s wanted vs how it is interpreted by law are often two different things. And failure there can lead to more action.
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Notable stories this week
Deals/M&A
Campaign of the week
- Adobe is betting on the CMO and CIO partnership. Adobe in partnership with TechCrunch Brand Studio.
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Smartest commentary
- “What data allowed us to do is realise that no one has a lock on good ideas,” he said. "In fact, the thing that actually unlocked the problem or solved the problem could come from anybody. And once you realise that, the true arbiter of truth is the data. It makes things so much simpler and just democratises everything. And that became culture.” -Marc Randolph, Netflix Co-Founder
- “We saw the beginnings of a recovery from brand advertisers, and continued resilience from direct response advertisers, reinforcing our confidence in the long-term positioning of our business,” -Jeremi Gorman, Snap Chief Business Officer
Datapoints of note
See all our Covid-19 data here.
- A viral TikTok tripled Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ sales.
- Cheddar's traffic in June was up 72% from February, and its user base rose by 86%.
- Bloomberg studio has grown 30% year on year.
- Deals to be a lead sponsor with esports teams are usually around $100,00, according to one sports media exec. In comparison, Vodafone paid $75 million per year to sponsor the McLaren Formula One racing team between 2007 and 2013.
- Just a couple of weeks into launching Platformer, Casey has grown the free list to 30,000 subscribers and has almost 1,000 of those now paying him at least $10 a month. He’s aiming to convert around 10% of his newsletter list eventually.
- According to data released by Nielsen earlier this year, the total podcast audience is growing at a compound average growth rate of 20% and expected to double by 2023.
- Snap's daily active users in India was up 150% YOY.
Thanks,
Ben
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