Every day a huge amount of data is produced by human beings and companies that are connected to the internet. A lot of this data falls into the hands of companies, who gather the data and who probably analyse the data to get to know more information about their user or customer. Knowing more about the user or customer could add value to their business in several ways. A lot of companies use the data and the information that is gathered by this data to approach the customer in more personalized or accurate way. Other companies adapt their whole business model to the gathered data and sell the data to other businesses who are in need of this data.
An example of the last type of company is Facebook, who arrogated a lot of value and power with the gathering of data.
But what happens when Facebook takes over another company with a lot of customer data in their possession, like Whatsapp. Will their power be too much? Will other comparable players in the market be still able to compete with them in gathering, analysing and selling valuable data
One of the people that is concerned about the value and power of data and what it does to fair competition within certain markets is the top antitrust regulator of the European Union, Margrethe Vestager.
Last thursday she expressed that she is considering to investigate mergers that involve a large amount of data even if the taken over company doesn’t make a lot of money.
The mergers of Whatsapp (by Facebook) and LinkedIn (by Microsoft) are already scrutini
zed and this shows that the European Union recognizes the importance and value of data nowadays.
In my opinion it is a good development that the guards of fair competition are now confirming that data is an aspect that influences competition in particular markets. The growth of the amount of data that is available will be exponential and the demand for certain data will be growing too. This means that the distribution of this data needs to be followed and kept in the right proportion. Scrutinizing mergers in which data are involved is a big step in tackling this possible problem.
References:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-17/data-may-be-key-in-microsoft-linkedin-probe-eu-s-vestager-says
