@Ngigi Interesting article. Though I think its abit shallow. To say Google controls the Digital Ad business is to stretch the truth abit because there are many aspects of this business not just search. And increasingly search is being replaced by Social. As we focus on one company's dominance (Microsoft, IBM etc) we fail to acknowledge the changing aspects of the industry itself. I think the major question we need to ask is this:- Should Google, Facebook and Amazon be declared public utilities? Is advertising as crucial as say communication via telephone, internet and mobile money? I think not. Can we live without search and social media? absolutely. Can we live without communication and the internet? Maybe. We just need to back to the stone age. :-) And closer to home should the Kenya Government declare MPesa a public utility? For us to answer this question we need to transport ourselves back in history when the US Government declared AT&T a public utility. There was a case then for 'approving' a monopoly through a series of government regulatory actions and AT&T's acquisitive strategy. The main case was about *INTEROPERABILITY *(emphasis deliberate). Is there a case now for say pushing towards MPesa being a utility? We cannot understate the impact MPesa has on our lives. Should we then because of this force the Utility Status on MPesa and force Safaricom to open it up to other players? *Ali Hussein* *Principal* *Hussein & Associates* Tel: +254 713 601113 Twitter: @AliHKassim Skype: abu-jomo LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim <http://t.sidekickopen16.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg4XyGdvVd771d65jFwdW2BW4zb56dyR9f5rj0h602?t=http%3A%2F%2Fke.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Falihkassim&si=6190904865718272&pi=9e8ec63b-cf42-41e9-855d-abce731a6fa7> 13th Floor , Delta Towers, Oracle Wing, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya. Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with. On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 11:27 AM, Ngigi Waithaka via kictanet < kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
Listers,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/opinion/sunday/is-it- time-to-break-up-google.html?_r=0
Here we go, again....
It seems these *BIG* issues have been and will continue being with us for a long while.
Before @Ali shoots back, this is a different debate from the Risk Management one, although they have certain areas where they intersect.
I quite think the closing words are very appropriate...
*"...Woodrow Wilson was right when he said in 1913, “If monopoly persists, monopoly will always sit at the helm of the government.” We ignore his words at our peril....*
-- *Regards,*
*Wait**haka Ngigi* Chief Executive Officer | Alliance Technologies | MCK Nairobi Synod Building T +254 20 525 0750 |Office Mobile: +254 716 201061 | M +254 737 811 000 www.at.co.ke
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