The four tech-giant CEO’s Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai face increasing criticism from US Congress and governors stating that these tech-companies are growing their dominance in the market. Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google are accused of boosting their powers by acquiring small start-up companies and by using competitor’s data for their own sale promotions etc. This conversation has been going in Europe as well and these four companies are being accused for exerting monopolistic behavior in their respective markets. (Lapienytė, 2020)

There is a growing concern about the power that these companies have, and customers as well as small emerging companies are filing complaints against these giant tech-companies because of their increasing dominance in the tech market. Because of this, on July 19^th , the 4 CEO’s had do defend their companies in a hearing with US lawmakers (Kelly, 2020). These lawmakers have been investigating these companies and have gathered 1.3 million documents to defend their cases (Kelly, 2020).

At the end of the hearing, the committee will publish a report in the coming months explaining how the CEO’s companies have been avoiding liability under the current anti-trust laws because those rules of competition were never made with the tech’s behaviors in mind back then (Kelly, 2020). While this is the first hearing with those 4 tech-giants together, it is certainly not going to be the last. Hopefully, this is only the beginning for more regulatory or legislative action, which is needed and strongly supported by the Democrats in the US.

But what are these tech-giants accused of?

Facebook was mostly accused because of its acquisition of social media apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp. These acquisitions helped Facebook have a strong position in the advertising market. Amazon is accused of gathering data from small businesses to strategize their products offered on their platform. Google is accused of promoting their own products over competition in the online search engine, and is also dominating the online advertising industry. Apple is accused of intentionally disadvantaging competing apps in the Apple store over its own products. (Lapienytė, 2020)

Do you think there will be more laws and regulations coming in the future concerning the monopolistic behavior of some tech-giants, and how do you think these will affect the above mentioned companies?

References
Kelly, M., 2020. Big Tech Is Going On Trial. [online] The Verge. Available at
<https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/28/21344920/big-tech-ceo-antitrust-hearing-apple-facebook-amazon-google-facebook> [Accessed 28 September 2020].

Lapienytė, J., 2020. Four Of The Most Powerful Tech Ceos To Defend Against Accusations
Of Monopoly | Cybernews. [online] CyberNews. Available at: <https://cybernews.com/news/four-of-the-most-powerful-tech-ceos-to-defend-against-accusations-of-monopoly/> [Accessed 28 September 2020].

Due to COVID-19, many stores that are reopening now will do so without fitting rooms, due to the social-distancing constraints. Thanks to Augmented Reality (AR), consumers could potentially try on as many clothes as they want, without even touching them.

So far, virtual changing rooms have been more of an experiment, rather than a true commercial asset. For example, in Japan, a retailer called ‘Urban Research’ launched an AR experiment in a Japanese shopping mall. The AR experiment leverages virtual changing room technology to power a pop-up store called ‘Wearable Clothing by Urban Research’. The store itself has the size of a fitting room, and uses no in-store inventory of clothing. How it works; the customers stand in front of two 60-inch screens, choose the items they want to try on and afterwards can see themselves dressed in those clothing items within a matter of seconds. All customer movements are being displayed on the screen in 3D and they can also use an iPad to make pictures of their outfits and share it with their community on social media networks. (In Japan, Urban Research Experiments with Virtual Changing Booths, 2014).

You might wonder how this virtual fit technology is developed? The idea is to be able to digitize the 2D image of a clothing item and break it down into 80 000 different segments. The result, a “map”, is then layered onto a 2D image of a human model. This means that any person can try on any piece of clothing, without ever leaving their house or without touching the clothes. (Tatum, 2020) Fashion brands have been testing out virtual technology for years already. Back in 2018, Burberry had installed AR mirrors in two stores, in front of which customers could experiment with the classic Burberry tartan ribbon material and print. But all these experiments are usually used as a marketing tactic to lure customers into the brand’s flagship stores, adding another stimulus to the whole in-store experience rather than being a standard asset.

A London-based startup, Superpersonal, which will launch its own 3D virtual clothing technology next fall, has received a lot of attention of retailers lately due to the pandemic. They were in conversation with a luxury retailer to install a virtual fitting room in their store, which would not only let the customers try on new clothing virtually, but also create super-personalized virtual content as well. To use the technology, customers would have to upload a selfie, and fill in their height and weight. The AI technology then transposes their face onto a body, which translates into a moving video of the virtual result. The idea is that the dressing room becomes a part of personalized content. (Tatum, 2020)

Due to the pandemic, there are more brands embracing the opportunities with AI. Last May, ASOS launched a trial of “See My Fit”, an online tool that uses AR technology to dress 16 models of different shapes, ages and ethnicities in each outfit across its catalogue virtually, as a way to replace the physical photoshoots. (Tatum, 2020)

AR certainly has a lot of potential to improve the in-store retail experience, but there are also downsides. Some people don’t like entering their weight and height details, because they feel exposed. Nonetheless, due to the current pandemic, AR could have a lot of potential to allow people to still try on clothes virtually, if the shop is not allowed to physically anymore.

Do you think virtual fitting technology will be something that will be more widely used in the retail industry in the near future? Do you think people would actually use it? How about privacy concerns?

Tatum, M., 2020. How AR Is Changing Fitting Rooms For Social-Distancing Measures. [online] Raconteur. Available at: <https://www.raconteur.net/retail/ecommerce-2020/ar-retail-covid> [Accessed 12 September 2020].

The Business of Fashion. 2014. In Japan, Urban Research Experiments With Virtual Changing Booths. [online] Available at:<https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/fashion-tech/japan-urban-research-experiments-virtual-changing-booths> [Accessed 12 September 2020].