600 words excluding in text citations and references

Question 1

Question 1 deals with the theme of tech monopolies. As shown in Study Unit 1, governments

are now debating the question of whether or not the tech giants should be broken up in order

to limit their monopoly power.

This question requires you to pick a tech giant and to produce an opinion article for a

newspaper explaining why you think it should not be broken up.

A good opinion article shows a good grasp of the key issue on hand and is able to present a

succinct, accurate, and convincing argument. An example can be found here:

Writing Guidelines and Further Instructions for Question 1:

Your article should not be longer than 600 words (excluding in-text citations and references).

Pick only one of the following 7 tech giants for your opinion article: Facebook, Amazon,

Apple, Google, Baidu, Alibaba, or Tencent. This list, as you can see, only contains US and

Chinese tech giants. This will give you an opportunity to showcase your awareness of

diversity across global cultures and markets.

In your opinion article, you should address the following issues:

(a) Examine the amount of competition faced by your tech giant in order to define the

limits of its dominance. If you can show that it faces substantial domestic and/or

global competition, you may be able to weaken the case for breaking it up. (25

marks)

(b) Illustrate some of the ambitious innovation initiatives that your tech giant is currently

pursuing. If you can show that your tech giant is still innovating aggressively, you

may be able to weaken the case for breaking it up. (25 marks)

efficiency and its ability to pursue bold and aggressive innovation schemes. (25

marks)

25 marks will be awarded for your language proficiency.