Big Tech’s Antitrust Argument: We Need to Be Big to Beat China

(Bloomberg) -- Google and Facebook Inc. have a new argument against calls to break up the technology giants: We need to be big to beat China.

Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai made the pitch in a recent CNN interview. "When we look at it globally, our tech companies are going to contribute to our economic growth in an important way. And we compete against other countries, other companies," he said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made this point more clearly, arguing that breaking up the social-media company would simply clear the way for Chinese tech companies, which don’t share American values, to step in and dominate.

When CNN asked Pichai about Zuckerberg’s comments, the Google CEO concurred. "There are many countries around the world which aspire to be the next Silicon Valley. And they are supporting their companies, too," he said. "So we have to balance both. This doesn’t mean you don’t scrutinize large companies. But you have to balance it with the fact that you want big, successful companies as well."

Not too long ago, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook were clamoring to get their consumer services into China, the world’s largest internet market.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gerrit De Vynck in New York at gdevynck@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr, Molly Schuetz

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