During the summer, various news reports from the USA announced that the authorities had started investigating technology giants’ use of power.

A mind-set has taken hold among the major parties that technology giants’ power has to be restricted. The motives, however, vary, which may halt the control measures.

The whole process is at its very early stages. I cannot help making a few wild predictions of the outcomes, as I have kept an eye on the technology giants in different roles for the past twenty years.

Technology giants affect all our lives, for instance, Yle cooperates with them in one way or another.

Let’s get straight to the point:

Amazon: A massive giant. The corporation has so much power particularly in the USA, its reach is difficult to conceive in Europe. In addition to the continuously growing online store, Amazon is in charge of so-called cloud services, providing a platform for innumerable companies’ online services. A very simple solution would be to split Amazon in two, and the corporation could hold on to either the online store or cloud services.

Google: In many ways, this corporation is the internet. Google is practically the internet search engine of the Western world and the dominant operating system of mobile phones. It also owns the most popular video service, Youtube. The boldest thing would be to split the corporation in three. It is also possible that the company will get to keep Youtube, but it will be forced to favour competing video services in the search results. This might give a chance to a dark horse unknown to the general public to climb to the top of video services.

Facebook: This social media giant is currently undergoing such a major change; it is difficult to estimate the end results. Facebook is changing direction with a lot of hype and in the process of building a unified platform for personal messaging. In a few years’ time, the company’s entire business model may be very different from now. It is possible that the authorities will think that too much power is connected to the new platform, and something will be done about this. In addition, the company may have to give up some of its services, such as Instagram.

Apple: The iconic tech giant has its loyal supporters. Unlike the other technology giants’, however, Apple’s market share is not big enough to freeze the society’s innovative ability. That is why I predict smaller restrictions on Apple.

It is always possible that the reports do not lead to any concrete action.

It is worth remembering, though, that only twenty years ago, the USA placed restrictions on Microsoft’s power. The solution paved the way for new services, and accelerated particularly Google’s way into fame.

Timo Kämäräinen
The writer is the Executive Online Producer at Yle News and Current Affairs.