Podcasting “Vertically Challenged”

We need to investigate the companies Big Tech DOESN’T buy.

This week on my podcast, I read “Vertically Challenged,” my latest Locus column, on the “vertical integration” of Big Tech firms, who have merged and acquired their way to dominance:

https://locusmag.com/2022/03/cory-doctorow-vertically-challenged/

While tech firms practice many kinds of vertical integration, the most important one is the business of being a platform and competing on a platform. Platforms — app stores, ad markets, ecommerce — are “two-sided markets,” with the platform company mediating between both buyer and seller.

These two-sided marketplaces are high-stakes commercial arenas whose games are refereed by the platform companies. They decide on search-rankings, service charges, and inclusion. A platform company’s judgment is the difference between commercial success and failure. If you’re banished to the bottom of a search-ranking or locked out of a low-priced commission tier, you will go bust while your rivals thrive.

And yet, platform users want the referee to make these calls: we want spam and dangerous products to be downranked or blocked, we want action on inauthentic reviews and counterfeits; we want the best products to be given advantages that make them easier to…