The Korea Fair Trade Commission said Google was trying to stifle the growth of Korean platform competitor One Store Co.
South Korea has fined Google Alphabet $32 million for using its influence in the mobile app market to oust a local competitor. Bloomberg reported this with reference to the Korea Fair Trade Commission.
It was noted that Google tried to block the growth of a competitor in the Korean platform One Store Co.
Google reportedly asked several Korean gaming companies, including NCSoft Corp. and Netmarble Corp., as well as smaller companies and Chinese companies, to release their new games exclusively on the Google Play Store, in exchange for Google promoting their games and providing additional support overseas.
At the same time, Google rejects a preference for developers who only host their programs on Google Play.
As the company says, “there’s no breaking the law” because it’s an open platform that gives developers control over how they distribute their programs.
“Google makes significant investments in developer success, and we respectfully disagree with the KFTC’s findings,” Google said in a statement.
The regulator said Google began making such offers in June 2016 when the One Store went live in Korea and continued until April 2018. This activity reportedly hindered the One Store’s ability to attract new games and caused sales to decline, while Google’s profits increased.
Remember that Google introduced an AI system for creating texts.
It was previously reported that Google will cut 12,000 jobs.
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Source: korrespondent
I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.