Academia: "Overseas Platforms Are Encroaching on the Market... Onple Law Will Hinder the Growth of Native Companies"

'Seminar on Platform Business Regulation and Activation Measures'

As the political sphere pushes for the Online Platform Regulation Act (Onplebeop), academia is expressing concerns that the regulation could lead to reverse discrimination between global platforms and domestic platforms. It is pointed out that encouraging corporate self-regulation is necessary for the growth and innovation of native companies.

The Korean Society for Cyber Communication held a seminar on the 21st under the theme of "Regulation and Revitalization Measures for Platform Businesses" to share these views.

From the left, Jaewon Kang, Professor at Dongguk University; Yonghee Kim, Research Fellow at Open Route; Siyoung Pyo, Professor at Kangwon National University; Hongbeom Kim, Professor at Gachon University. Photo by Cyber Communication Society

At the seminar, Yonghee Kim, a research fellow at Openroot, analyzed, "Domestic platform companies have a very small scale in the global market," and "If regulations accumulate and are applied, domestic platforms will lose competitiveness in the market." Researcher Kim pointed out, "While period telecommunication service providers have high investment costs, making prior regulation appropriate, it is difficult to define the market for value-added telecommunication service providers, so it is hard to determine whether they hold a dominant market position," and criticized that the Onplebeop was legislated without sufficient understanding of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry.

Heungbeom Kim, a professor in the Department of Business Administration at Gachon University, said, "If fairness in regulation is not secured, it is natural not to regulate," and expressed concern, "If antitrust standards are created based on domestic companies, wouldn't that actually increase the influence of overseas platforms in Korea?"

Professor Siyoung Pyo of the Department of Media Communication at Kangwon National University also supported the opinion of self-regulation. Professor Pyo emphasized, "Since the platform industry has a high possibility of regulatory failure, it is necessary to regulate based on self-regulation, and if problems occur, it is reasonable to regulate with a focus on ex-post regulation," stressing that sufficient understanding of the industry must precede. He added, "Using the high market share of native companies as a justification for regulating domestic platform companies is inappropriate," and expressed concerns about the side effects of prior regulation, saying, "Both the United States and Europe are implementing policies to protect their domestic industries, so it is necessary to lead policies suitable for domestic circumstances."