Google Faces Complaints by Rival South Korean Companies

The most-used internet portals of South Korea have collaboratively filed a complaint against the Internet Giant Google, on Friday, for antitrust regulations. It has been blamed that Google Inc. has been unlawfully oppressing the competition in the local market of mobile Internet search. This filing is quite the similar to the previous one, filed last month by Microsoft Corp., with European Commission regulators.

Google's hompage in Korean

This complaint has been registered mutually by two complainers, addressed to the South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). The complainers are registered to be NHN Corp and Daum Communications Corp, which are both the top most South Internet search portals of Korea itsef. The documents actually blame Google was unjustly rigging the competition by taking unnecessary advantage of its position as a dominant smartphone operating system provider.

As the market for each product gets bigger and better, the competition between Google and rival web browsers and portals also takes a steeper slop as they hunt for a bigger share of this rapidly mounting mobile market. According to a public statement released by a representative of NHN, "Smartphones using (Google's) free Android operating system have Google's search engine installed as a default navigation tool and are systematically designed to make it virtually impossible to switch to another option." He went on explaining the matter that "This limits opportunities for companies offering similar services to compete on a level playing field, restricts consumers' choices and discourages the growth of the mobile Internet market as telecoms operators and handset makers will not be encouraged to offer differentiated products and services."

Whereas, on the other hand, a Google Inc. as reportedly said: "We have not yet been contacted by the KFTC but will work with them to address any questions they may have."

Daum conveyed the other side of the story, where Google claims that it allowing the carriers and phone vendors the complete free autonomy, on whether which app to include and which not to, is not feasible. Google has the edge here of having nearly 20% of the whole market share of Korea's mobile Internet search market.

The Android operating system of Google has undoubtedly blown away the smartphone market. It is most expected to become the No.1 platform in this year. The smartphone market is predicted to grow even up to 58% related to this year; whereas, the Android will most likely take over the 39% of the market share. These statistics and analysis is presented by the research firm Gartner.