Google again fined $177 million by South Korea's antitrust regulators

Korea Fair Trade Commission reported that Google is blocking smartphone manufacturers using different operating systems developed by other companies rather than Android, which seems like a market dominance. And for this reason, the company was fined $177 million by South Korea's antitrust regulators.

Alphabet Inc's Google is a big name in the tech industry, and they provide one of the largest operating systems for smartphones and tablets in the world, which needs no introduction.

According to our collected data, there are about 3.8 Billion active Android users globally, which converts to 48.16% of the global population. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KTFC) works directly under the Prime Minister and is a ministerial-level central administrative organisation that passes rules in the department. They targeted Google as the company seems to capitalise on their market position. Every company has its design and rules to follow to expand and keep the business afloat in the competitive market.

Yonhap News reported that it is healthy to have competition in the market as it tends to give out upgraded products which are efficient and affordable to more customers. Previously we saw Huawei on a ban, and the company tried to use their operating system for their phones. Currently, Google is on the watch, and the company is slapped with $177 million in fine (207.4 billion Korean Won) along with notice to stop the practice of stopping competition.

Apple iOS, along with Google's Android, are the most popular smartphone operating system in the world, where Android holds the lions share. It is fair to have limitations to conduct the business of some form but allegedly, limiting other companies from coping with the new system hurts the economy's growth in some ways. One of that can be an implementation of unique technology for the broad market. The South Korean group did a setback for competitive business practice, and big names are prone to come up more often than others. The fine is on the large side given by the KFTC on global tech companies to allow corrective order in the market.

KTFC said, "We expect the latest measures will help set the stage for competition to revive in the mobile OS and app markets."

The regulators did not take the matter lightly by slapping Google with a hefty fine. Still, they also said Google is trying to stifle competition by using their bargaining power to lose completion. Smartphone makers signed an "anti-fragmentation agreement" before app store licensing in the Play Store for Google's operating system. The KTFC came to a direct statement that e-commerce and cloud giant Amazon and another giant e-commerce company Alibaba suffered and gradually failed to expand their operating system business idea because the competition was not positive.

South Korea has some of the largest companies like Samsung Electronics and LG electronics. They struggled to launch their products, smart speakers and smartwatches because they ran on Android only.

For Google's side, we guess it's because they have the power to handle a mass market, and we saw what happened with Nokia. They had unmatched competition in the market, but because of failure to adapt to changes, the company suffered a massive fall and from the crowned king became a memory. It's all because of Android's superiority, and failing to comply can reason with more issues. Unless there is a better option, Android will keep dominating the market, and for that day to come, competition is necessary. But because Android's security, efficiency and availability made the operating system successful, newer competitive operating systems will have to come out with a much bigger plan even to peek with a name to compete.