Competition authority stopping Meta from buying competitor
Meta, earlier Facebook, must sell British animated pictures platform Giphy, the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ruled. The authority says that Meta´s deal to buy Giphy could harm social media users and UK advertisers. Big tech companies have several times been accused of buying competing companies to secure its own dominance on the market.
CMA says that Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy would reduce competition between social media platforms and that the deal has already removed Giphy as a potential challenger in the display advertising market.
The authority says that wigth the merger, Facebook would be able to increase its already significant market power in relation to other social media platforms by:
- denying or limiting other platforms’ access to Giphy GIFs, driving more traffic to Facebook-owned sites – Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – which already account for 73% of user time spent on social media in the UK, or
- changing the terms of access by, for example, requiring TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat to provide more user data in order to access Giphy GIFs.
CMA says it has also looked at how the deal would affect the display advertising market. It found that, before the merger, Giphy had launched innovative advertising services which it was considering expanding to countries outside the US, including the UK. Giphy’s services allowed companies – such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Pepsi – to promote their brands through visual images and GIFs.
The CMA found that Giphy’s advertising services had the potential to compete with Facebook’s own display advertising services. They would have also encouraged greater innovation from others in the market, including social media sites and advertisers.
”Facebook terminated Giphy’s advertising services at the time of the merger, removing an important source of potential competition. The CMA considers this particularly concerning given that Facebook controls nearly half of the £7 billion display advertising market in the UK.”
”After consulting with interested businesses and organisations – and assessing alternative solutions (known as ‘remedies’) put forward by Facebook – the CMA has concluded that its competition concerns can only be addressed by Facebook selling Giphy in its entirety to an approved buyer.”
Stuart McIntosh, Chair of the independent inquiry group carrying out the investigation, said:
”The tie-up between Facebook and Giphy has already removed a potential challenger in the display advertising market.”
”Without action, it will also allow Facebook to increase its significant market power in social media even further, through controlling competitors’ access to Giphy GIFs.”
”By requiring Facebook to sell Giphy, we are protecting millions of social media users and promoting competition and innovation in digital advertising.”
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