Competition Lore Podcast

Many of us use the term "platform" on a daily basis to describe businesses that we connect with online. But when and how does a business act as a platform? And what difference does this make to platform users, whether as consumers or other businesses that sell or advertise products and services on it?

Professor Dick Schmalensee has been studying platforms since at least the 1980s. He says the simplest definition of a platform is a business that brings different sides together. It's an old model but one supercharged by the tech-revolution, and it's getting attention from many authorities around the world. The first challenge though is to understand just what they are dealing with.

In this episode of Competition Lore, Professor Schmalensee defines the platform business model and explains how their network effects work, making them attractive to users but also potentially challenging for competition law enforcement.

Here is just a sample of Dick Schmalensee’s recent work relevant to this episode:

Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms, Harvard Business Review Press, 2016 (with David Evans)

Network Effects: March to the Evidence, not to the Slogans, 2017 (with David Evans).

The Antitrust Analysis of Multisided Businesses, 2015 (with David Evans)

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There has been vigorous debate about the concentration of market power in super-platforms like Google and Facebook. Do we have the policy tools to preserve competition? What are the implications of increasingly powerful data-opolies? The new economy has led some scholars to question the economic theories that have underpinned competition policy since the '80s, and in some parts of the world, politicians and policymakers are taking notice.

One of the clearest voices challenging the orthodoxy is Professor Maurice Stucke. He has highlighted a series of economic, political and social harms associated with the rise of large data-driven business models. His co-authored books on Big Data and Competition Policy and Virtual Competition have attracted enormous attention internationally.

In this episode of Competition Lore, Professor Stucke explains what data-opolies are, and why he says we should worry about them.

Here is just a sample of Maurice Stucke's recent work:

No Mistake About It: The Important Role of Antitrust in the Era of Big Data, 2015 (with Allen Grunes)

Debunking the Myths Over Big Data and Antitrust, 2015 (with Allen Grunes)

Virtual Competition: The Promise and Perils of the Algorithm-Driven Economy, Harvard University Press, 2016 (with Ariel Ezrachi)

When Competition Fails to Optimize Quality: A Look at Search Engines, 2016 (with Ariel Ezrachi)

Big Data and Competition Policy, Oxford University Press, 2016 (with Allen Grunes)

How Digital Assistants Can Harm our Economy, Privacy, and Democracy, 2017 (with Ariel Ezrachi)

Should we be concerned about data-opolies?, 2018

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Competition in a digital economy is a new frontier.

Featuring regular cut-through interviews with leading thinkers, movers and shakers, Competition Lore is a podcast series that engages us all in a debate about the transformative potential and risks of digitalised competition.

Join Caron Beaton-Wells, Professor in Competition Law at the University of Melbourne, to tackle what it means to participate as a competitor, consumer or citizen in a digital economy and society.

Competition Lore launches on 5 July 2018. Subscribe now on your favourite podcast platform.

Competition Lore is produced by Written & Recorded.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.