Digital Monopolies?

A "digital monopoly" can be a strange thing. An application, whether Facebook or PayPal or Google or iTunes can have external characteristics that resemble what might have been seen as monopolies in other earlier contexts.

But they are odd sorts of monopolies. They can be used "for free," so price gouging is hard to discern. There are other alternatives for all applications and devices, over time, so lack of choices is likewise hard to discern.

But in some quarters there is concern over such application "monopolies," even when traditional tests of consumer harm are virtually impossible to prove.

The rise of the digital monopolies