Google to Congress: We're Not a Travel Monopoly
Skift Take
Travelers indeed shop all over the place when they are doing trip-planning. But to downplay Google's dominant role, as an exec did Tuesday, when travel brands are spending billions of dollars annually with the search engine-turned-travel-product operator, is disingenuous.
If you run a hotel, airline, or online travel agency, and you thought you needed to buy advertisements in Google search or Google Trips, then guess again — it's probably not as essential as you have long believed because consumers begin their travel searches with "specialist competitors."
That's the conclusion travel executives might erroneously make if they believe a statement a Google antitrust executive made Tuesday to a U.S. House Judiciary Committee in arguing against the view that Google is a monopoly.
Committee member Jamie Raskin, a Democratic representative from Maryland, addressed Adam Cohen, Google's director of economic policy, and cited a 2018 Rand Fishkin study alleging that Google accounts for more than 90 percent of U.S. web search volume, and is therefore a "near monopoly."
"So congratulations on that,"
