The competitive landscape for social media services has transformed since the ACCC first conducted the Digital Platform Services Inquiry in 2017 – 2019.
And Meta, operator of Facebook and Instagram, wants platforms such as Tiktok, BeReal, WeAre8 and Clubhouse to be factored into the latest examination of competition and consumer concerns.
The ACCC’s sixth interim report is due to be submitted to the Treasurer by March 2023 and will look into competition issues involving social media services, including barriers to entry and expansion faced by new platforms.
In its latest submission to the Inquiry, Meta stated it was “not in any way shielded from intense competition.”
“While our services continue to be popular with users and advertisers, this success cannot simply be attributed to barriers to entry or weak competitive constraints as was the basis of the ACCC’s findings in 2019.
“Rather, the intense competition that Meta has faced and continues to face demonstrates the exact opposite: that Meta does not have enduring market power and faces strong competitive constraints from various products and services."
Meta pointed to recent growth in competing apps and websites, noting consumers were spending comparively less time on Facebook.
In Australia, public reporting indicated Facebook had fallen behind TikTok based on the average time spent per Android user on the Android app (23.4 hours per month vs 17.6 hrs).
This is only slightly above YouTube (17.1 hours, a 5% year-on-year increase), while both platforms attracted significantly greater time spent per user than Instagram (8.3 hours per month).
In addition to social media operators, new entrants such as Netflix and Disney+ have also intensified competition for digital advertising dollars.
“We face intense competition on all sides of the multi-sided landscape in which we operate, and need to innovate constantly to attract users, creators, businesses and advertisers to our services," Meta stated.
“The reality of what has occurred over the past 4-5 years contrasts starkly with what a principles-based competition analysis would expect if there were entrenched market power, any ability to foreclose competitors, or only weak competitive constraints in this multi-sided landscape.”
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