Daniel Zender for Rest of World
- A report by South Africa’s Competition Commission alleges that Google and some other large tech companies are anti-competitive and making growth difficult for small local businesses.
- The commission wants Google to tailor some of its products to promote the local businesses and then invest up to $17.3 million in them.
- Experts say the commission is putting the country’s burgeoning digital economy at risk.
In July, South Africa’s Competition Commission, an entity established by the government to regulate business practices and promote competition, released a report detailing the findings of a two-year-long investigation. It looked at the competitive practices of “online intermediation platforms” — digital platforms that connect buyers and sellers — in the country. The 123-page report alleged that Google, alongside tech companies like Takealot and Uber Eats, were hindering fair market competition and, as a result, the growth of South Africa’s digital economy.
As defined by the World Trade Organization, online intermediation platforms are businesses that, for a fee, facilitate direct interactions between buyers and sellers. Google, for instance, is famous for its search engine that aggregates websites for people to find and visit, making it an intermediation platform between websites and visitors. Websites that want more visibility on Google usually pay for ads so that they can rank high when a user searches for particular words, and this...
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