Even a lot of their attempts to increase competitiveness like forcing Apple to allow alternative app stores have been halfassed and not very effective.
We heard this since Uber days and all it did was break the old taxi systems and brought taxi service to a wider audience. As a consumer I benefited immensely from Uber.
Likewise for AirBnB and hotels.
Not saying that these don't have secondary effects on the society - but as a consumer they were and arguably still are pretty amazing.
All these companies thrive on the externalization of costs and killing an economy to then use their monopoly position to maximize money extraction.
Uber and other ride sharing apps improved UX immensely and still are cheaper for consumers than regular taxes.
> their monopoly position to maximize money extraction.
Neither AirBnB or Uber are anywhere close to being monopolies aside from maybe a few markers that I'm not aware of.
> you cannot hire all your employees as contract workers and deprive them of their benefits
For employees yeah, pay and conditions are not great compared to normal taxi drivers OTH the demand is higher and there are more "jobs" on aggregate.
Most of the does EU has Uber now, and Wolt and some others, so it's not like we avoided anything there in practice though.
True, OTH it's not obvious that these jobs would even exist in the first place without Uber/etc. since demand has certainly increased
Me and quite a few others are getting real tired of the constant name-dropping of mega-corporations that do not care about your safety, health, or well-being. This does not resonate with anyone except a small circle of wealthy tech elitists.
If they can make a profit from those things, great, but they will also not hesitate to make a profit from your suffering as well. Ask the lung doctors of the people living next to xAI's data centers if their patients are better off than before.