What a Google Breakup Would Mean for Travel
Photo Caption: Google could potentially be forced to separate some of its businesses like Maps and search under antitrust proposals. Pictured, Valentina Frassi a program manager for Google Street View, on the move at a destination.
Skift Take
Superapps and connected trips would take a hit if Google were forced to self-immolate. However, competition would flourish if authorities curtail Google bias.
There has been a flurry a legislative activity in the U.S. in the past few days to stop Google and other big tech firms from using their market power to self-promote their own products, and to break up Google's advertising businesses, but their outcome is uncertain, and the potential impact would be extremely complex to gauge.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, who's the majority leader, plans on getting a Senate vote by summer on bipartisan legislation that would thwart Google's practice of self-preferencing its own products such as its Google Travel advertising business, which includes flights, hotels, vacation rentals, and tours and activities, Axios reported Friday. The New York Senator is trying to run the clock out on the mid-term elections and all of the tumult that they could bring.
A day earlier, Axios reported that four U.S. Senators — two from each party, including conservative firebrand Ted Cruz of Texas and moderate Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota —
