From the report: "Online
attention rivals provide products and features to obtain the attention of
consumers and sell some of that attention, through other products and services,
to merchants, developers and others who value it. The multi-sided business of
seeking and providing attention is fluid with rivalries crossing boundaries
defined by the features of the products and services. It is also dynamic.
Rivals introduce new products and services, some involving drastic innovation,
frequently. Online attention rivals impose competitive constraints on each
other. Product differentiation tempers the significance of these constraints in
particular situations. But the relevant differentiation mainly involves aspects
of the attention that is procured and sold rather than, necessarily, particular
features of the products and services used for acquiring and delivering that
attention. Antitrust analysis should consider these competitive constraints in
evaluating market definition, market power, and the potential for anticompetitive
effects. Most importantly, antitrust analysis should focus on competition for
seeking and providing attention rather than the particular products and
services used for securing and delivering this attention. The existence of
competition among attention rivals does not imply that antitrust should reduce
the vigor with which it examines mergers and exclusionary practices among these
platforms. It just needs to look for problems in the right places." Read more
