Mathias Dopfner, Chief Executive of Axel Springer, Europe’s largest media company has openly criticised the search engine giant, Google, in a German newspaper.
Mathias has published a letter addressed to Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in response to a column by Eric.
He has expressed his fear about Google and its power and has also intrigued Google’s interests to create a superstate where anti-trust and privacy laws don’t apply.
Mr. Schmidt, in his column, had described the advertising relationship between Axel Springer and Google as challenging, but had also said that both the companies had walked down the aisle to sign a multi-year deal.
Mr. Dopfner, however, acknowledged that he was pleased with the marketing relationship between the two companies, but also went on to add that they had no choice but to use Google to increase their online reach. Axel Springer makes 62% of its profits from digital business.
He also said that companies like Google are far more powerful than people realise. “With the exception of biological viruses, there is nothing with such speed, efficiency and aggressiveness that spreads like these technology platforms, and this also lends its creators, owners and users with new power.”, these were his words.
Mathias also brought in a long-running dispute between Google and the European Commission regarding allegations that Google favours its own products in search results. Google, however, said its proposals to rank the search were fair and wide-reaching.
Mr. Dopfner demands transparent and fair criteria in Google’s search results; in fact, not only in Google, but also in the social networking giant ‘Facebook’. He cites an incident with Mark Zuckerberg when Mark, upon being asked how Facebook stored data and protected users’ privacy said ‘I do not understand your question. Those who have nothing to hide, have nothing to fear.’
He finished his letter with a warning to Google, that in the history of economics, monopolies do not survive long.
Axel Springer publishes more than 200 newspapers and magazines including German papers Die Welt and Bild. It also has a significant online presence television and radio interests. However, Mathias did not publish his letter in any of his newspapers.
Google has not commented on the letter yet.
Source: http://articles.sandhira.com/european-media-giant-criticised-google.html
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