Introduction
In recent years, big tech’s entry into new markets like entertainment, banking, or healthcare has aroused monopoly complaints from established players. Both in the European Union (EU) and the United States, congressional institutions, antitrust agencies, and market regulators appear to be increasingly concerned. Whilst US antitrust authorities are yet to act, the European Union has adopted aggressive decisions against big tech. In addition, regulatory reform is on the tables of European lawmakers with proposals to limit big tech’s acquisitions of startups or mandate data sharing with competitors. Contemporary policy reliance on a monopoly explanation is, however, inconsistent with descriptions of intense levels of big tech oligopoly competition found in financial reports, market research, and competitive intelligence analysis. This chapter attempts to sketch out the book’s ambition to give a fuller account of big tech competition.