DOJ Sues Apple & the Perplexity Hypothesis | EP9

We dive into two meaty topics today. First, we analyze the Department of Justice's recent antitrust lawsuit against Apple. We look at the crux of their arguments, compare against past cases and debate whether Apple's lack of interoperability can be construed as anticompetitive.

Second, we dive into a new crop of search engine alternatively coming up called answer engines, the most popular one today being Perplexity. We dig into how these are different from search engines, past attempts at replacing Google Search and debate whether answer engines can replace search. We also dig into nuances around informational vs commercial queries, what that means for monetization and Google's potential response to these risks.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:32) Tee up - DOJ sues Apple

(04:09) Brief summary of monopoly laws in the US

(07:15) How this case's arguments compare against Google, Amazon cases

(12:38) Thoughts on "performance smartphones" as a relevant market

(18:20) Alleged anti competitive behavior, Apple's lack of interoperability

(30:09) Answer engines, chat based search interfaces and the Perplexity hypothesis

(34:29) Past attempts at replacing Google search

(37:16) Can answer engines replace search

(41:56) Is is easier to build an answer engine today than it was to build a search engine in the past

(49:28) Informational vs commercial intent queries, hybrid interfaces

(57:30) Risks for Google and what they will likely do