Online advertising is gaining every year more and more importance in the marketing strategies of B2C companies all over the world. Despite the slow advancement (and adoption) compared to many other countries, this trend is having an impact also in Italy, where the digital advertising industry is progressively increasing its market value. Nowadays, the market is considered a duopoly in the hands of Google and Facebook, which hold the vast majority of shares. Microeconomic theories explain how markets under duopoly are normally inefficient and unable to reach optimization of welfare for businesses, consumers and society as a whole. However, the majority of criticisms towards Google and Facebook come from competitors, EU antitrust and final consumers who are worried about the privacy of their personal data. Differently, the opinion of advertisers, Google’s and Facebook’s clients, is not often taken into consideration. The purpose of the thesis is primarily to understand if Italian advertisers are concerned about the dominant position of Google and Facebook in the advertising market, and then to identify who or what could be the key factor to challenge their dominance. Furthermore, I will provide an analysis of the real effectiveness of the European Commission's interventions against these two players, supported by the opinion of advertisers about the antitrust strategies adopted so far. The data were collected through an online survey that involved 20 marketing managers from Italian B2C firms. The result from the empirical findings illustrates that a significant percentage of advertisers fear the consolidation of the Digital Duopoly and the consequent exit of competitors from the advertising market. This lack of alternatives may cause an increase in the cost of campaigns due to the higher bargaining power of Google and Facebook towards media buyers and higher competition among advertisers within the two platforms. The study also showed that according to advertisers the most likely solution to halt the dominance of Google and Facebook would be the introduction of a game-changer technology that will cause a redistribution of the market shares. This demonstrates the lack of trust of Italian companies towards the European Commission, which plays a minor role in this scenario and is not considered capable of protecting competition, due to the ineffective measures taken so. In particular, behavioral remedies and pecuniary sanctions adopted against Google and Facebook are considered too weak to produce effective results, while the application of structural remedies also in abuse of dominance circumstances would provide greater effects.
La pubblicità online acquisisce ogni anno maggiore importanza nelle strategie di marketing delle aziende di tutto il mondo. Anche se in ritardo rispetto a molti altri paesi, questo trend sta avendo un notevole impatto anche in Italia, dove l’industria della pubblicità digitale sta progressivamente aumentando il suo valore. Tale mercato è oggi considerato un duopolio nelle mani di Google e Facebook, che ne detengono la stragrande maggioranza delle quote. Le teorie microeconomiche illustrano come i mercati caratterizzati da forme di duopolio siano generalmente inefficienti e incapaci di massimizzare il benessere delle aziende, dei consumatori e della società nel suo complesso. Tuttavia, la maggior parte delle critiche nei confronti di Google e Facebook provengono dai loro stessi concorrenti, dall’antitrust europeo e dai consumatori finali preoccupati per la privacy dei loro dati personali. Al contrario, il parere degli inserzionisti, clienti di Google e Facebook, non viene spesso preso in considerazione. L’obiettivo della tesi è innanzitutto di indagare se gli inserzionisti italiani sono preoccupati per la posizione dominante di Google e Facebook nel mercato pubblicitario, e successivamente di identificare quale potrebbe essere il fattore chiave in grado di ristabilire un livello adeguato di concorrenza nel settore. Successivamente, verrà presentata un'analisi della reale efficacia degli interventi della Commissione europea nei confronti di questi due attori, prendendo in considerazione il parere degli inserzionisti sulle strategie adottate finora dall’antitrust. I dati utilizzati per l’analisi sono stati raccolti attraverso un questionario online che ha coinvolto 20 responsabili marketing di aziende italiane B2C. I risultati dello studio dimostrano che una percentuale significativa degli inserzionisti teme il consolidamento del duopolio digitale e la conseguente probabile uscita dei competitor dal mercato pubblicitario. Secondo gli intervistati, la mancanza di valide alternative sarà la causa di un eventuale aumento del costo delle campagne e sarà dovuto a due fattori: il maggior potere contrattuale di Google e Facebook nei confronti degli inserzionisti e un incremento della concorrenza tra questi ultimi all'interno delle due piattaforme. Lo studio dimostra inoltre che secondo gli inserzionisti italiani la soluzione più plausibile per fermare il dominio di Google e Facebook potrebbe essere l'introduzione di una tecnologia rivoluzionaria in grado di provocare una redistribuzione delle quote di mercato tra più attori. Ciò sottolinea la mancanza di fiducia delle imprese italiane nei confronti della Commissione europea come attore in grado di garantire un adeguato livello di concorrenza, soprattutto a causa delle inefficaci misure correttive adottate finora. In particolare, i rimedi comportamentali e le sanzioni pecuniarie applicate nei confronti di Google e Facebook sono considerati troppo deboli per generare risultati efficaci, mentre l’attuazione di rimedi strutturali, anche nei casi di abuso di posizione dominante, potrebbe produrre effetti più rilevanti.
Google e Facebook: analisi e prospettive del duopolio della pubblicità online
MARTINENGO, DAVIDE
2018/2019
Abstract
Online advertising is gaining every year more and more importance in the marketing strategies of B2C companies all over the world. Despite the slow advancement (and adoption) compared to many other countries, this trend is having an impact also in Italy, where the digital advertising industry is progressively increasing its market value. Nowadays, the market is considered a duopoly in the hands of Google and Facebook, which hold the vast majority of shares. Microeconomic theories explain how markets under duopoly are normally inefficient and unable to reach optimization of welfare for businesses, consumers and society as a whole. However, the majority of criticisms towards Google and Facebook come from competitors, EU antitrust and final consumers who are worried about the privacy of their personal data. Differently, the opinion of advertisers, Google’s and Facebook’s clients, is not often taken into consideration. The purpose of the thesis is primarily to understand if Italian advertisers are concerned about the dominant position of Google and Facebook in the advertising market, and then to identify who or what could be the key factor to challenge their dominance. Furthermore, I will provide an analysis of the real effectiveness of the European Commission's interventions against these two players, supported by the opinion of advertisers about the antitrust strategies adopted so far. The data were collected through an online survey that involved 20 marketing managers from Italian B2C firms. The result from the empirical findings illustrates that a significant percentage of advertisers fear the consolidation of the Digital Duopoly and the consequent exit of competitors from the advertising market. This lack of alternatives may cause an increase in the cost of campaigns due to the higher bargaining power of Google and Facebook towards media buyers and higher competition among advertisers within the two platforms. The study also showed that according to advertisers the most likely solution to halt the dominance of Google and Facebook would be the introduction of a game-changer technology that will cause a redistribution of the market shares. This demonstrates the lack of trust of Italian companies towards the European Commission, which plays a minor role in this scenario and is not considered capable of protecting competition, due to the ineffective measures taken so. In particular, behavioral remedies and pecuniary sanctions adopted against Google and Facebook are considered too weak to produce effective results, while the application of structural remedies also in abuse of dominance circumstances would provide greater effects.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
Per maggiori informazioni e per verifiche sull'eventuale disponibilità del file scrivere a: unitesi@unipv.it.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/6547