Comment by dwaite
5 days ago
I thought Booking Holdings Inc was also American.
There are zero European companies, including Spotify - the #1 music streaming marketplace in the world.
5 days ago
I thought Booking Holdings Inc was also American.
There are zero European companies, including Spotify - the #1 music streaming marketplace in the world.
My mistake. While Booking.com is HQ'd in Amsterdam, Booking Holdings is indeed a US company (also responsible for Priceline, Kayak, and OpenTable.)
> There are zero European companies, including Spotify - the #1 music streaming marketplace in the world.
This still doesn't answer the actual question of whether the gatekeepers were selected because they are US companies, or because they are are Internet gatekeepers. I don't find it surprising that the US's legal and economic culture resulted in more conglomerate gatekeepers than other nations.
What exactly does Spotify gatekeep though?
They're a gatekeeper in the same way YouTube or TikTok is.
They control access of businesses, in this case music labels, to the final customer.
That's not really true. You can easily switch to Deezer, Apple Music, Tidal, Qobuz, YouTube Music, etc. You'll have access to just about the exact same library of music.
You can't just ignore YouTube, TikTok, Facebook Marketplace and still have access to the content they gatekeep.
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