The CEOs of Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon have defendedtheir respective positions in the global market ahead of the historic testimonybefore the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee on Wednesday.
The US panel was set to grill Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, MarkZuckerberg and Sundar Pichai together over the dominance in their fields ofe-retail, smartphone software, social media and Search, respectively.
Cook clarified that the smartphone market is fiercelycompetitive and companies like Samsung, LG, Huawei, and Google have built verysuccessful smartphone businesses offering different approaches.
In a prepared statement before his appearance, Cook saidthat "Apple does not have a dominant market share in any market where wedo business."
Cook was set to defend the company's 30 per cent fee ofdigital transactions on the App Store.
"Apple's commissions are comparable to or lower thancommissions charged by the majority of our competitors. And they are vastly lowerthan the 50 to 70 per cent that software developers paid to distribute theirwork before we launched the App Store," Cook said in the prepared remarks.
Apple is facing criticism over its App Store, which is theonly way to install consumer software on an I-Phone.
Zuckerberg defended Facebook's acquisitions of Instagram andWhatsApp in his prepared remarks.
"Facebook has made Instagram and WhatsApp successful aspart of our family of apps," Zuckerberg wrote.
"Instagram and WhatsApp have been able to grow andoperate their services using Facebook's bespoke, lower-cost infrastructure andtackle spam and harmful content with Facebook's integrity teams andtechnology".
Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 andWhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014.
"We have developed new products for Instagram andWhatsApp and we have learned from those companies to bring new ideas toFacebook. The end result is better services that provide more value to peopleand advertisers, which is a core goal of Facebook's acquisition strategy,"defended Zuckerberg.
Bezos said that Amazon should be scrutinized.
"We should scrutinize all large institutions, whetherthey're companies, government agencies, or non-profits. Our responsibility isto make sure we pass such scrutiny with flying colours," he mentioned inhis prepared remarks.
"Amazon accounts for less than 1% of the $25 trillionglobal retail market and less than 4% of retail in the U.S. Unlike industriesthat are winner-take-all, there's room in retail for many winners," heargued.
For example, more than 80 retailers in the U.S. alone earnover $1 billion in annual revenue.
"Every day, Amazon competes against large, establishedplayers like Target, Costco, Kroger, and, of course, Walmart - a company morethan twice Amazon's size".
Walmart's online sales grew 74 per cent in the firstquarter.
"And customers are increasingly flocking to servicesinvented by other stores that Amazon still can't match at the scale of otherlarge companies, like curbside pickup and in-store returns," said Bezos.
In his prepared testimony, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichaisaid that the company's services like “Search” offer major benefits forconsumers and small businesses.
"We know Google's continued success is not guaranteed.Google operates in highly competitive and dynamic global markets, in whichprices are free or falling, and products are constantly improving. Today'scompetitive landscape looks nothing like it did 5 years ago, let alone 21 yearsago, when Google launched its first product, Google Search," he said.
"We also deliberately build platforms that support theinnovation of others," he added, referring to the Android operatingsystem.
"Using Android - a product I worked on for many years -thousands of device makers and mobile operators build and sell devices withoutany licensing fees to us or any requirement to integrate our products. Thisgreatly reduces device prices, and today billions of consumers around the globeare now able to afford cutting-edge smartphones, some for less than $50,"Pichai emphasized.
The House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee has confirmed"the hearing would now begin at noon (US time) on Wednesday".
Scheduled for Monday, the congressional hearing waspostponed in the wake of the death of civil rights icon and DemocraticCongressman John Lewis.