What Percent Makes A Monopoly?

Let's leave Microsoft out of this and just assume their antitrust complaints to Congress are self-servingly suspect and hypocritical—after all, Yahoo acquisition timing aside, how does a company that has controlled the computer and browser market for decades suddenly earn sympathy when they can't compete in another market?

So forget'em and let's ask another question. At what point does Google really gain a monopoly or near complete control of the search advertising business. One could argue they already do, and already did 20 percent ago. The numbers that frothing-at-the-mouth competitors want to use are kind of bendy in actuality.

They that shall not be named probably have their own numbers, as do Google and Yahoo. Whose numbers you go with can make a lot difference. Consider Comscore's search numbers don't look quite as threatening. Their metrics have Google at under 62% share, which becomes 82% with Yahoo added.
And with both of these sets of numbers, Google and Yahoo's combined share is equal to or less than the Beast of Redmond's in the browser and OS markets.

Revolution in Monopoly Theory. A British economist thought it up close to 25 years ago. It basically says that for monopolies in markets where there is easy entry, no regulation is needed to break them up or control them.

The one argument remaining against that is all the infrastructure and technology Google has shored up. Similar to the telecommunications industry, a newcomer couldn't bust that easily, even if they could easily enter the market itself, because of the enormous cost involved.

Look at Powerset. And look who acquired them—somebody with pockets so deep ($60 billion last year) they can build whatever they want to compete, even buy up all other competition until search marketing is a one-on-one enterprise.

That's called a duopoly. And we know from experience with telcos and cable that the government doesn't really mind those so much. Mr. Softy is playing up (monopolizing) that Google fear for all its worth.