Podcast: Too Much Power

Facebook, Google and Amazon all possess near monopolies in their respective markets. Is there anything wrong with that?

The presiding view has been that monopolies don’t matter as long as the consumer is better off, according to Rishad Tobaccowala, chief growth officer at Publicis Groupe. “All of us get these platforms for free,” he says on this week’s episode of “AdExchanger Talks.” But that view is changing.

“The new view is that it’s not really free.”

There’s the cost of privacy and personal data, as well as a toll on society that’s still not well understood. And then there’s the cost to the advertisers that underwrite the platforms’ businesses.

“The reality of it is when marketers have almost no choices, even though consumers have choices, in effect there’s been a competitive breakdown,” Tobaccowala says. “These companies are very good companies with good people. But the benefits and size and wealth generated by these companies basically meant that nobody questioned them. Some of them see the criticism as something that is either unfair but is really a PR problem.”

Also in this episode, Tobaccowala considers the breakdown in trust between clients and their supply chain partners, and the path forward.

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