Wu Views Internet Monopolies as Potential Problem

FTC analyst Timothy Wu said in an interview with Bloomberg that the government may need to step in to prevent large internet companies from becoming monopolies. With the entanglement of various layers of web companies, Wu says that allowing firms to monopolize more than one market could result in an innovation-downturn. The concern is that large firms like Google GOOG and Apple AAPL, among others, could grow so large and expand their reach into so many aspects of the internet that they crowd out any future competitors. "Now the whole issue is whether people can start businesses on the Web, on mobile, or tablet platforms," Wu said to Bloomberg. "No one imagined the telephone industry in the 1920s would become a stagnant industry, but it happened. What do the conditions for competition look like as the Internet reaches middle age?" he said.