2 Big 2 Ctrl
Platforms and Regulations
If you got this email in your inbox, you are one of the 1111 email recipients of this newsletter.
This also makes you a friend of the RPML, so share it with others. You can add more of your friends to the Community of Platform’ed by using the following link.
And, if a friend forwarded this email to you, please sign up for an awesome, dis-intermediated and fruitful relationship by clicking on following link and subscribing to the newsletter.
DTW
During the Week, Twitter kept flagging off tweets from US President Trump. According to a report by NYT, Twitter labeled 15 of the 44 tweets and retweets Mr. Trump posted since the first polls closed on Election Day.
This has brought lot of attention on Platforms and their regulation. I would like to look at the issue of platform and regulations from three different perspectives- Regulation of Platforms , Regulations on Platforms and Regulations by Platforms.
Regulation of Platforms has been a burning issue for last couple of years and multlple government have tried to legislate and govern the platforms. In my previous newsletter, I had discuss about the concerns of various national governments in dealing with platforms who have spread their operation across the world. Relationship between platforms and countries could be seen through a three dimensional framework - first, platforms being supra-national; second, platforms as national identities; and third, platforms as tools of nations.
Tim Wu, one of the foremost thinker on anti-trust wrote The Curse of Bigness where he discusses increasing economic concentration across the world. Monopolies across sectors have amassed tremendous power - economic and market. They have become too big and have been accused of using this scale to suppress competition, squeeze suppliers and possibly over charge customers.
On 5th November, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) issued an order for all members participating in Unified Payments Interface (UPI) clarifying its efforts to curb market dominance by one or more entity.
PSP and TPAP shall ensure that the total volume of transactions initiated through the TPAP shall not exceed 30% of the overall volume of transactions processed in UPI during the preceding three months (on a rolling basis). The aforesaid cap shall be applicable with effect from January 1, 2021.
This of course raises more questions than solve the current one of monopoly threat. First, what happens to the two companies Google Pay and PhonePe who already each have 40% market share of 2 billion monthly transactions? Second, is it a free pass to the new entity WhatsApp owned by Facebook and backed by Reliance Jio Platforms in India?
Regulations on Platforms include efforts by the various platforms to regulate activities by users and vendors on them. At different times, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Twitter have been accused of over zealous regulation of user activity on their platforms. I have written about the relationship between Brands and Platforms that could be visualised through a three parallel alternative realities in a New Matrix World - Brands on platforms, Platforms as brands and Commodification of brands on platforms. In a recent controversy, Ankhi Das, the Facebook policy chief for India resigned over failure to address Facebook India’s bias and failure to address dangerous content in India.
Regulations by Platforms include efforts by various entities to be ahead of regulations and/or influence government policy through advocacy and public relations. It is well acknowledged fact that the regulations lag innovations and it is no more true than for tech platforms. Uber and others have mastered the art of spontaneous deregulation. They seems to believe in the misinterpretation of old age adage twisted as “It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission”.
California voters approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure that exempts gig economy companies from having to classify their workers as employees. This is seen as a major public policy win by Uber and others to influence labour related regulations not only in USA but across the world.
Platforms have become dominant economic and social force across world. It is time to externally regulate them, help them to regulate their internal ecosystem and of course avoid lagging behind them in visioning and enforcing regulation.
OTW
Over the Weekend, I started watching the Queen’s Gambit on Netflix. I am a fan of sports stories and this one is turning out to be real good drama.
Queen’s Gambit is also one of the most common opening moves in a chess game. Everybody knows this as an opening move and would prepare accordingly. It got me thinking about the role of planning and preparation in our lives.
Few weeks back, I had watched 10-part web series named The Last Dance on Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls. It is an extraordinary series documenting the rise and rise of MJ. There is an interesting story of how Nike and MJ got together for a brand journey which has resulted in The Jordan Brand making a revenue of $3.1 billion per year for Nike and MJ richer by $1.3 billion since he signed first deal with Nike in 1984. According to Forbes, it is the richest athlete endorsement deal ever through which Jordan helped transform Nike into one of the world’s most valuable consumer brands.
After all, it is matter of “Just Do It”.
I Love You
Shailendra
PS- Do not forget to sign up for an exciting session of MountainSpeak on every second Sunday of month. In case you missed it today, you can watch latest Episode S3E6 with environmentalist and social worker J P Maithani here !
Well Sir, Queen's Gambit is really a show to watch and so is the platform news these days.
Over the weekend even I cam across certain content which talked about how platforms are becoming the defacto government- something we talked about in class.
But I feel that innovation is more important than regulation. Having a one sided opinion and simply pointing out problems won't do good to anyone. The benefits of these platforms are far greater than the adversaries they offer.
Regulating them is important but not the old fashioned way.
How can information age be governed by laws and policies of industrial era.
And India plays on the notes of those who pays. Jio pay didn't get much market share.
WhatsApp didn't get approval since last two years untill they finally tie up with Jio (Ambani bhai). And when they did the rules were tweeked to ensure they get a similar share if not more, all in the name.of anti monopolistic practices.
The government basically said that there can be three players and third will be Ambani bhai with WhatsApp ofcourse.
Not sure, I might be having apophenia.🤔
Well Sir, what to say? It’s too much of content in this newsletter, seems like you have been writing this newsletter for a long time and I know that not true at all. It’s all about the matter of reading and retaining of content with oneself, and with regards to what you are simply phenomenal.
Also, talking about the Regulations on Platforms, won’t you think the other predominant players in Indian Markets (maybe in different sectors) who have the power to influence the policy making part of the country and travel in Z+ security, can affect the platforms and their businesses Willingly in order to gain market share, if they are coming up with the similar kind of platform.
It will really be great, if the next newsletter is about the Platforms, Powerful Business, Government and its intervention in Policy making.
Over the Weekend, I binged watched the 10 - part web series Mirzapur 2. Which is great if you haven’t watched up till now like me.