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What should we do about digital monopolies?

Timur Turlov shared his views on antitrust regulation.
What should we do about digital monopolies?

During the discussion on "Kazakhstan within Ecosystems" at the KURSIV ECOSYSTEMS FORUM 2024, the CEO of Freedom Holding Corp. remarked: “The dilemma of antitrust regulation is quite old. It originated over 100 years ago, during the era of classic infrastructures. Now regulators are beginning to face more serious threats, and it is becoming clear that there is really no understanding of how to deal with digital monopolies. Therefore, regulators worldwide are attempting to impose fines on them. However, this does not change the fact that they remain monopolies. It turns out that currently, states do not have very effective mechanisms to influence them.”

The speaker believes that ecosystems can lead the market toward monopolistic positions. Despite regulators in various countries trying to maintain competition through antitrust methods, almost nowhere does this yield significant success.

“On the other hand, even if we become the most popular service in Kazakhstan, it will prove to be insufficient for survival. We need to expand and become more global in order to have the resources to compete with companies that are much larger and more global than we are. We will either become part of another, larger ecosystem, which could be advantageous for shareholders, or we will have to build a massive ecosystem ourselves that extends far beyond our regions. This process won’t happen overnight. Although I don't know, everything is accelerating so much that it might happen faster than we think,” shared Timur Turlov.

The speaker noted that globalization will continue, especially in digital services, while disregarding borders and the desires of national regulators to somehow control it.

“National regulators will undoubtedly try to do this. They are increasingly realizing how, so to speak, YouTube requires more regulation than any broadcasting sector in any given country, while it remains completely beyond their regulatory reach. This starts to create additional significant distortions, where those who can be strictly regulated are under heavy scrutiny, while those who cannot be regulated are left unmonitored,” emphasized Timur Turlov.