According to news on July 5, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Australia branch stated that the algorithms of Google and Facebook, two American technology companies, will largely affect how users use the technology. What kind of information is browsed when using corporate services? Therefore, Australia must strictly regulate Google and Facebook. Prior to this, News Corporation had repeatedly suggested to Australia that Google should be forced to separate its search function from the rest of its business units.
At the end of 2018, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission also pointed out in a report that American technology giants were affecting Australia’s traditional media industry and called for supervision, investigation and fines on these giants. Australia's appeal is so loud that it can't help but remind people of the EU's investigation of Google in recent years. Since 2010, the EU has launched three investigations against Google, and the final three fines totaled a staggering US$9.5 billion.
Perhaps due to the influence of the European Union, in May 2019, India and Italy launched antitrust investigations against Google. Nowadays, there are rising voices of opposition in Australia, which will also greatly affect Google’s development in Australia. In fact, last Thursday, Australian litigation financing company JPB Liberty launched a record-breaking $500 billion global class action lawsuit against Google and three other U.S. Internet giants for their cryptocurrency advertising ban.
It is not difficult to see that if Australia follows the EU, it will cause an even heavier blow to Google, which is already severely weakened. Currently, under investigations from various countries, Google is experiencing its biggest crisis in recent years, part of which is reflected in its performance. In the first quarter of this year, Google's revenue was only US$36.3 billion, about US$1 billion lower than analysts' expectations, and hit the lowest revenue growth rate in the past four years. After the results were announced, Google's stock price fell sharply by more than 7% after hours, hitting a record high Worst performance in nearly a decade.
It can be seen that Google is at the bottom of the external investigation, and the United States, which should have stood up to protect its own companies, is now "without hesitation" taking action against Google and launching the most severe investigation in history. This is why ? Some analysts pointed out that according to previous U.S. investigations into giants such as AT&T, IBM, and Microsoft, the purpose behind the U.S. move is to force these technology giants to open up patents or give up part of the market, thereby stimulating market innovation vitality and maintaining the United States' status as a technology power.
The United States has always been eager to maintain its leadership position in future tracks such as 5G and artificial intelligence. This ambition is also reflected in its behavior of prohibiting the development of companies from other countries through bans. The United States even plans to invest US$275 billion in the 5G industry in the communications industry to win this "must win" competition.
However, one thing is certain, even if the United States takes action against Google, it will not issue sky-high fines like the EU does, and the outcome is likely to be a "happy reunion" without any danger. Despite this, Google has been bruised and bruised in the nine-year tug-of-war with the EU, and now it is facing investigations from many countries. The future development path of Google and other American technology giants may still be full of thorns.