As Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is currently battling regulators in Europe over alleged antitrust behavior, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe has supported the Internet giant in its arguments.
According to Fortune, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY)’s top executive has said that his company is a direct rival to Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in the Internet shopping space.
“Yes…We are a strong commerce competitor [of Google’s],” Donahoe is quoted as saying by the publication.
The statement supports Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s argument, according to Fortune, that antitrust authorities in Europe misinterprets how the electronic shopping industry works.
Margarethe Vestager, Europe’s antitrust chief, while admiring Google, also reiterates in interviews that the search giant is overpowering in its reach in the search space. Part of the legal war in Europe against the Mountain View, California-based giant is the claim that it has abused its dominance in search to displace competing companies. These companies include shopping search engines.
With the eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) CEO’s comment, Europe’s argument that Google has massive influence, particularly in online shopping, is dealt a blow. Google, basing on Donahoe’s comment, may not be as big as European regulators want people to think in the shopping space. Google has also put forth this argument.
According to Fortune, Google Shopping, the shopping comparison search engine of the technology giant, had 13 million unique visitors in February. In contrast, eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) and rival Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) each had more than 100 million unique visitors in the same month, according to data from Comscore.
Amazon and eBay also have search features implemented for their platforms. This may lead observers of the Internet shopping industry to believe that these three companies are competing against each other in providing people with a way to look for merchandize to bu.
Nonetheless, one of the firms which was first to complain about Google says, according to Fortune, that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is really their direct competitor and that they have more of an interdependent relationship with Amazon and eBay.
Robert Karr’s Joho Capital owned 150,664 Class A shares of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) by the end of 4Q2014.
Dan Loeb’s Third Point owned 10 million eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) shares by the end of the last quarter of 2014, a 123% quarter over quarter increase.
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