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Tech entrepreneurs are tired of waiting for Washington to challenge Big Tech, so they’re doing it themselves.
Beginners are trying to undo Google’s dominance of search, YouTube’s dominance of video, and Facebook’s pressure on the dissemination of information.
The newest competitor is You.com, a search engine introduced in November that seeks to dethrone Google’s position as the main gateway for people to explore the digital world.
You.com CEO Richard Socher said that a “monolithic monopoly” that tells everyone what to read, write, consume and buy is insane. People should be able to choose their own preferences.
Mr Socher said he was hopeful for antitrust action from Washington, but did not trust it.
“You’re aware of the invasion of privacy, you’re aware of the abundance of ads in these results, you’re probably aware that it’s time to try the new search engine,” said Mr. Socher. “So we hope You.com will be a choice for many people.”
Mr. Socher’s team prioritized privacy, which was reflected in the company’s opposition to targeted advertising. The search engine allows people to choose a customized or custom experience.
When people browse in You.com’s private mode, it sends people anonymized search data to services that require them to return results, such as the weather service. However, these external services will not know who is calling, as You.com sends the internet protocol address instead of the caller’s IP address, according to the company’s website.
You.com’s search functionality also allows people to review more results from various other platforms without having to open a new tab or search directly on these other platforms.
Mr. Socher said You.com was not built to increase engagement, but to enable people to “search less, do more.”
When You.com was launched with $20 million in help from investors. You.com remains ad-free for now, and Mr. Socher is keeping a close eye on ideas on how to monetize the site, which he says he doesn’t want competitors to know.
Google-owned YouTube-challenging video platform Rumble has already had a big year in raising money and growing its user base.
The Rumble started in 2013, but took a big hit last year as disgruntled supporters of former President Donald Trump and others searched for new places to speak freely online. In 2021, Rumble received a large undisclosed investment from a group that included billionaire Peter Thiel, who was an early investor in companies like Facebook, LinkedIn and Yelp.
In December, Rumble announced that it had merged with a special purpose acquisition firm sponsored by financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, in a transaction that Rumble said would generate revenue of $400 million, of which $100 million was fully committed.
Rumble’s user growth has helped attract cash flow. Rumble said it had an average of 36 million monthly users in the third quarter of 2021, and saw a sharp increase from the 1.6 million average monthly users in the third quarter of 2020.
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlowski said the Canadian-based company will open its US headquarters in Sarasota, Florida, in 2022.
“I’ve been to the Sarasota area a few times, I really fell in love with the area, and the state of Florida was very friendly to the Rumble,” Mr. Pavlowski said. “As you probably already know, Gov. [Ron] DeSantis has an official account on Rumble, so we thought it was a great choice to go to a smaller town in Florida.”
Rumble has avoided taking political positions in public publicity, but companies that challenge leading social media platforms like Facebook, which has been repurposed as Meta, are much more comfortable doing so. The dominating feature of many neoconservative challengers to Facebook and Twitter is a commitment to free speech online.
Mr. Trump’s social platform, TRUTH Social, isn’t live yet – with an expected launch date on Apple’s App Store in February 2022 – but the parent company’s swift moves to raise funds have drawn scrutiny from the Biden administration, and Massachusetts Democrat Sen. It angered Elizabeth Warren.
Trump Media & Technology Group, the team behind the social platform, announced earlier this year that Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special-purpose acquisition firm. (DWAC) announced its merger agreement plans. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority have since requested information from DWAC, according to paperwork submitted by DWAC to the SEC.
Ms Warren recently urged the SEC to investigate Mr Trump’s new initiative, but DWAC’s regulatory filings show the SEC sought information before pressing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler to investigate Mr Trump’s group.
As Mr. Trump’s team works for an official launch and faces scrutiny from political rivals, another platform popular with conservatives is looking to expand its business. After being launched from Apple and Google’s app stores and ostracized by Amazon Web Services in January 2021, Parler went online again.
Parler announced plans to work on “decentralized technology projects,” starting with former First Lady Melania Trump. Parler told MelaniaTrump.com that she provides “programming, crypto and operational infrastructure support” and has already assisted Ms. Trump in the development of her non-tradable token platform.
Overtaking the tech giants is on the horizon for newcomers. But rivals say they’ve learned lessons from early clashes with Big Tech, such as Amazon, Apple and Google’s beating Parler earlier this year, and are increasingly building their own infrastructure to avoid relying on dominant players.
Still, all startups follow Big Tech companies in terms of audience size and market position. For example, YouTube announced it has 2 billion monthly active users, and Facebook said in September it has 1.93 billion daily active users.
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