These companies, the argument went, are essentially freeloaders, which benefit from the Thai market without paying taxes like their legacy competitors. "Government officials tend to be intimidated by Google," Mr Taplin says. The notion that regulators do not know enough about technology is also misguided: Silicon Valley was created by regulations, Mr Taplin says. "In the fifties, AT&T had patents for transistors, cellulars, etc, that created a whole lot of new firms, including Motorola and Intel," Mr Taplin says. According to figures cited by Mr Taplin, Google has an 88% market share in search and search advertising.

Source: Bangkok Post August 23, 2017 03:33 UTC