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Elizabeth Warren Calls To Break Up Facebook, Google, and Amazon
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing to break up technology companies, including Amazon.com, Google and Facebook, calling them anti-competitive behemoths that are crowding out competition. From a report: "Twenty-five years ago, Facebook, Google, and Amazon didn't exist. Now they are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world," Warren wrote in a post on the blogging platform Medium. "It's a great story -- but also one that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets." Warren's call also comes as Democrats have begun to plan for increased oversight of tech companies after winning control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections. On Wednesday, House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation to establish strong net neutrality protections that would look to prevent major service providers from using their power to manipulate how users experience the internet. Update: In a statement, Warren's team said that the proposal would also apply to Apple. "They would have to structurally separate -- choosing between, for example, running the App Store or offering their own apps," a spokesperson said.
For iDevices, Apple has a 44% Market share in the US, and its market share across the world as a whole is less than 20%. For computers, it barely scrapes 5%. So while Apple is doing well, it's doing well in a market with healthy competition.
(I don't actually agree that any of these companies need to be broken up, I'm just pointing out Apple doesn't fit the criteria. Google and Amazon have good and bad sides and might need some regulation, but they're not, overall, terrible for the industry. Facebook should be killed with fire, not broken up where it can turn back into itself like the Terminator from Terminator 2.)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Amazon has about 5% of American retail sales. So it may be premature to label them a monopoly.
So far, they are not even the market leader. Walmart has more than twice their revenue.
Amazon: $239B
Walmart: $514B
You're thinking of Amazon only as on online retailer. The proposed breakup would involve their cloud services, which they're one of the largest players in, potentially Alexa/voice computing, subscription services like Prime Video and music, etc.