Spring 2011, Volume 7, Number 1
Media and Communications & the Web Economy
The focus of much of this issue concerns digital media and communications, but first we introduce CPI’s new publishing technology with two audio interviews with leading competition authorities. Then we look at the interplay among online communications platforms, consumer privacy, and consumer protection. We examine what import a price of zero has for antitrust, ask “Is the Web Dead,” provide an analytical history of search engines, and take a retrospective look at Baidu. On a different track, we investigate interchange fees, how to analyze mergers in innovation markets, survey aftermarkets, and answer “Is antitrust enforcement irrelevant?” The Classic is the Jeff Rohlfs’ 1974 article that modernized network effects analysis and, as Richard Schmalensee describes in his introduction, provided an prescient model of Facebook.