Introduction
TikTok is a popular video-sharing application mostly used by young adults and children. Users can submit and share videos, stories, fashion and beauty vlogs, and other content using the platform. TikTok has worked hard to build a search engine with capabilities comparable to Google’s. The platform is currently used extensively daily, and that number is anticipated to grow. Google, on the other side, is a search engine that can be used to find anything from web pages to movies to photographs to maps to answers to specific search keywords. Google searches the massive number of web pages available on the internet for specific keywords using a software application. By these standards, Google and TikTok are direct competitors operating in the same market, although the former is far more complicated than the latter.
Discussion
Google has been the most popular website in the world for almost the last two decades. Google is unequaled in the search engine business due to the two trillion searches it processes each year (Srinivasan, 2020). While this is the case, TikTok’s popularity has eclipsed Google and every other social networking site, and it is already overtaking Google’s whole suite of goods, including Gmail and Google Maps. TikTok is the most popular app in the world, especially among today’s young people, often known as generation Z (Onibada, 2022). Although newer than Google, TikTok is expanding quickly and currently exceeds Google in nearly every measure (Choudhary et al., 2020).
It is, therefore, understandable that Claude Lukyamuzi’s text provoked such strong feelings on internet platforms. Customers from either side, especially from Google do not want to accept that TikTok is taking over the market.
TikTok’s spectacular rise can be attributed to Google’s recent antitrust proceedings. Federal and state governments filed four distinct antitrust lawsuits against Google over a year (Kang et al., 2020). As of October 2020, Google had to defend itself against numerous cases, including some filed by the department of justice and several state attorneys. The lawsuits claim that Google had engaged in anti-competitive conduct to maintain its monopoly on search engines and search advertising (Kang et al., 2020).
Many antitrust legislation and regulations are being enacted worldwide to limit Google’s power. Overall, these cases and many more antitrust-related proceedings show there is a cause to charge the company. Leaders at Google may see the rapid growth of TikTok and other close competitors as a threat that needs elimination. This mentality may lead to illegal deals, partnerships, and businesses merging to gain market advantage. Unfortunately, some of Google’s deals seem against the law and raise serious business problems against the company.
Conclusion
Overall, the aggressiveness of Google and the sheer volume of antitrust complaints brought against it support the filing of charges. It is difficult to picture the internet without Google, the search engine that began as a small business and has since infiltrated every aspect of human online lives. Even though most of Google’s internet services and products are free and popular, the company’s domination may have been obtained and maintained dishonestly to the cost of competitors and consumers, hence the high numbers of cases in courts. While powerful and in the same market as Google, with time, TikTok may completely take over most of the consumers, with Google losing its competitive edge due to the antitrust issues.
References
Choudhary, N., Gautam, C., & Arya, V. (2020). Digital marketing challenge and opportunity with reference to TikTok-a new rising social media platform. Editorial Board, 9(10), 1-197. Web.
Kang, C., McCabe, D., & Wakabayashi, D. (2020). US accuses Google of illegally protecting monopoly. The New York Times, 20. Web.
Onibada, A. (2022). “I don’t Google anymore. I TikTok.” Buzz Feed News. Web.
Srinivasan, D. (2020). Why Google dominates advertising markets. Stanford Technology Law Review, 24, 55. Web.