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| The UK is targeting major tech companies |
The UK government has created a new regulatory body to oversee major tech companies like Google and Facebook.
The agency's goal is to monitor the concentration of power among a few large tech companies, which could hurt consumers and small businesses.
DMU's new technology subsidiary is located in the Competition and Market Department (CMA), which is currently monitoring anti-competitive behavior in the wider market.
The digital marketing department's first task is to study the relationship between large tech companies and online advertising, including the nearly £ 14 billion ($ 19.2 billion) spent on digital advertising in the UK in 2019.
About 80% of the money went to two companies, Google and Facebook.
The UK Digital Technology Minister said in a statement: “The Digital Marketing Department was established and I asked them to investigate the relationship between the platform, content providers, digital platforms and advertisers.”
The minister added: It has paved the way for the development of new digital services, lowered prices, and given consumers more options and data control and support for our journalism, which has had a positive impact on freedom of expression and our democratic values.
Companies like Facebook and Google have already occupied the online advertising market. Even after starting an online business, traditional media companies don't have much advertising revenue.
Britain's commerce secretary described the new agency as an anti-competitive agency and said that allowing small tech firms to flourish would help curb the rule of the tech giants.
While the European Union has the potential to punish anti-competitive behavior by major tech companies, the UK has come around since leaving the EU.
Some small companies have reverted to the situation in which large technology companies disrupted the domestic information market. For example, Australia has created what is known as a media blog where profits can be shared between technology companies and information companies.
Big tech companies and the Australian government have negotiated a fraction of the profits to the news media, but this may be the beginning, not the end, of these clashes on the international stage.
Britain could try a similar scheme for Australia in the near future.