Well, combine that with google shopping, maps, search etc and google is practically merging the internet as a data source it doesn’t pay to do the service of the sites it steals from. Want to book a trip? Buy a product ? Find a place ? Took a picture? Made a video? Wrote a email, story, book? Let google repackage the content, logistics, work and give it to others completely leaving you out of the loop, well sort of, they’ll assign an allotted bandwidth of traffic after they sell it first. They will use its position to analyse all value to extract from you and your clients and then compete by with you and bypassing you to extract all of it. The search engine should be separate to the answer engine and alphabet should loose control over google.. its shopping , maps etc broken off into separate entities.

Apple should ban side loading and close the App Store. Bring back specific popular apps as part of a subscription service. If you want a app on their device you must convince Apple to but or Commission it. Apple becomes your customers. Developers must buy dev kits if they want to develop outside of the emulator. Safer ecosystem , still enables development both formally and informally but gives apple control while removing marketplace monopoly off the board. No market place no monopoly. Just shift the customer relationship from b2c to b2b. Sure initially youâ(TM)ll make less money but over time more through rebilling. Do this in countries that are market place hostile.

Half correct, for a few decades the west has been disposing its waste in Asia, Africa and South America for “processing” where it ends up in rivers..

This precisely the issue.. there is no difference really it costs apple shelf space in their store. They store, serve , maintain and have teams that review submitted software, there is an incurred cost to apple for epic putting in their little marketplace. Fortnite’s entire monetisation strategy is to give the game away for free and then sell items inside the app in a way that excludes the store from _ever_ taking a cut. A court effectively ordered Walmart to keep stocking coke , after deciding to end the relationship, and incur costs for serving hundreds of millions of people after coke gave them means to pay cheaper without Walmart taking a cut. Coke effectively got given permanent costly shelf space and the right to independently sell its products without the store taking a cut. It’s on little mini mart inside a minimart that doesn’t pay rent.

Tim Sweeney, if you or any of your people are reading this; pray to whatever deity you can that apple isn’t this petty. Tim Cook, if you or any of your people are reading this; how are you not already started the process?!

Take it a step further: picture walking into a store, browsing products on shelves, and some item have a QR code that lets you buy it directly from the manufacturer, cheaper, with no cut for the retailer. Or because you stock Coca-Cola, Coke gets the right to run a mini-store within your shelf space. Or owning a mall means you’re forced to let anyone open a store on your property. That’s the real-world equivalent of what’s now being challenged digitally lately. And let’s not pretend this boundary hasn’t already been breached. DRM rules meant for media have found their way into tractors and car engines etc. Right-to-repair laws are constantly under siege by companies citing digital security on physical items you bought.

It will though be interesting what the knock on effect will be outside of IT. It’s a question of who owns the customer relationship, the platform or the provider. The ruling against Apple sets a precedent that ripples far beyond mobile apps. What happens when the same logic is applied to smart TVs, game consoles, or social media ecosystems that lock down app distribution and payments? Could platforms like Meta be forced to allow third-party monetization? What about Tesla? And what about physical analogs, malls or big-box stores that impose payment systems or exclusive terms on vendors? If digital platforms can’t mandate their own walled gardens, how long before the same principles challenge other tightly controlled ecosystems?

To be honest, fake empires are way better than real ones. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the last few years have actually been great. The global reaction to Russia has been one of the most liberating periods in decades. It pushed the West to begin relinquishing some of its last colonial holdings in Africa (we’re still working on the rest), gave countries financial freedom in choosing which currencies to use, and allowed for international trade without direct Western involvement or paying tribute to former colonial powers. The various trade disputes have opened the door for more players to compete, as markets scramble to replace traditional suppliers. Best of all, while the West is isolating itself by censoring major international news organizations under the pretext of funding structures, the rest of the world isn’t doing the same. That means we can now reach a broader consensus, one where even the so-called Western untouchables are finally touchable. I get why this would be upsetting to westerners but that empire with America at its head is far far more consequential to the rest of the world than any fake Russian one :) maybe the west will be less likely do things or support things like Iraq, Libya, Syria, Palestine etc if one or two countries in their territory end up similarly molested by outside forces. Real empires are nasty , oppressive dominating things.. that those that have them should be ashamed of.

Except that’s not the case with the mentioned example channels they don’t bait and switch. It’s nothing but a type of meme. People do actually actively watch this type of content and it’s making the real ones less effective. That’s why this is happening..

Shhh, tread carefully , the google marketing workers here will downvote your comment if you talk too loud..

It’s not surprising with how many google and Microsoft employees are over here.. this is effectively a corpo marketing wonderland. You see it in the submission.. the comments and the voting.. this place was captured years ago and has never been the same. Kinda sad really.

You don’t appreciate nor understand how much western cooperate saviours like Microsoft actively coordinate with western regimes..

It isn’t .. this is a propaganda outlet. It was captured a few years back.

More alternatives!

As a produce producer I totally agree with us protecting farmers by forcing Walmart to stock my produce.. as a producers they are maybe one of two possibly three stores I simply must be in. Sure there are lots of alternative stores but that doesn’t get me access to the customers I want and feel entitled to, “their customer” .. personally, I think apple should just close down the App Store and then commission popular apps on a subscription basis or something for sake of maintaining at least some system integrity moving forward. It makes more sense for them to predict volume movement and then resell licences they own instead of selling them on behalf of others or letting others sell them on their behalf.