在反壟斷聽證會之前’今天晚些時候，蘋果、谷歌、亞馬遜和Facebook的執行長們的開場白將在眾議院司法委員會上公佈’的網站。這些宣告的篇幅從四到八頁不等，讓我們最清楚地看到蒂姆·庫克、桑德爾·皮查伊、傑夫·貝佐斯和馬克·扎克伯格計劃如何保護自己的公司免受這一波最新的反壟斷審查，並指責他們的一些行為損害了消費者和扼殺了競爭。

這四種說法有很多相似之處，你可以在這裡通讀它們：

• 蘋果的蒂姆庫克
• 谷歌的Sundar Pichai
• 亞馬遜的傑夫·貝佐斯
• Facebook的馬克·扎克伯格

例如，他們都呼籲美國的愛國主義（貝佐斯聲稱，世界上其他國家甚至都會喜歡我們在美國喝一小口的長生不老藥），並談論他們的產品給消費者以及小企業帶來的好處。這四家公司都堅持認為，與人們普遍認為的相反，它們確實面臨著激烈的競爭，而且它們的成功遠沒有保證。

以下是執行長們在開場白中的主要觀點：

大家：我們面臨著激烈的競爭

每一位執行長的一個重要觀點是，儘管他們明顯佔據主導地位，但他們都面臨著多大的競爭。例如，傑夫·貝佐斯（Jeff Bezos）指出，亞馬遜的業務在美國零售市場中所佔份額不到4%，它正日益面臨來自沃爾瑪（Walmart）和塔吉特（Target）等老牌競爭對手的競爭，後者提供的服務是亞馬遜無法與之競爭的。

“Walmart’s online sales grew 74% in the first quarter. And customers are increasingly flocking to services invented by other stores that Amazon still can’t match at the scale of other large companies, like curbside pickup and in-store returns.”

以下是蘋果公司的蒂姆•庫克（Tim Cook），他談到了自己面臨的來自Android廠商的競爭：

“The **artphone market is fiercely competitive, and companies like Samsung, LG, Huawei and Google have built very successful **artphone businesses offering different approaches.

Apple does not have a dominant market share in any market where we do business. That is not just true for iPhone; it is true for any product category.”

聖達皮查伊’考慮到谷歌的壟斷地位，谷歌對其面臨的競爭的辯護尤為有趣’人們普遍認為它在網上搜索中有著重要的作用。

“People have more ways to search for information than ever before — and increasingly this is happening outside the context of only a search engine. Often the answer is just a click or an app away: You can ask Alexa a question from your kitchen; read your news on Twitter; ask friends for information via WhatsApp; and get recommendati*** on Snapchat or Pinterest. When searching for products online, you may be visiting Amazon, eBay, Walmart, or any one of a number of e-commerce providers, where most online shopping queries happen.”

皮查伊還指出，谷歌在數字廣告市場面臨競爭，不過沒有特別提到Facebook。扎克伯格也聲稱，Facebook面臨著競爭，包括來自國際競爭的競爭，“這些競爭能夠進入我們不在的市場”

所有：我們的產品是有用的和喜愛的

從根本上說，這四位執行長都寫道，他們公司提供的產品不僅對消費者有用（當然不會有害），而且對其他企業也有用。

例如，Tim Cook指出，在客戶調查中，iPhone的滿意度為99%，而且公司在開發工具方面的投資也非常有限“不僅功能強大，而且使用簡單，小學的學生可以而且確實可以**應用程式。”

對於SundarPichai，谷歌的好處是那些能夠獲得搜尋、Gmail、地圖和照片等免費服務的客戶感受到的，他還認為Android允許廉價智慧**上市。他認為，小企業主能夠利用谷歌的服務提供線上服務，並在大流行期間保持穩定。

貝佐斯說，亞馬遜市場“幫助了成千上萬的賣家在亞馬遜上發展業務”，該公司試圖在客戶知道自己需要新服務之前，為他們提供新的服務。

“We are internally driven to improve our services, add benefits and features, invent new products, lower prices, and speed up shipping times—before we have to. No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program, but it sure turns out they wanted it. And I could give you many such examples.”

最後，扎克伯格指出，Facebook的服務幫助“數以百萬計的企業與客戶建立聯絡”，也幫助客戶保持相互聯絡。

但是，除了這些更為普遍的辯護外，每位CEO都會花時間為自己的公司辯護，以應對批評者對他們提出的具體批評。

亞馬遜：我們創造就業機會

對亞馬遜來說，最近一個關鍵的批評是員工的待遇問題，最近隨著該公司與COVID-19病毒的流行作鬥爭，這種批評愈演愈烈。但貝佐斯認為，亞馬遜給員工的工資很高，而且它在培訓員工方面投入了大量資金。

“The trust customers put in us every day has allowed Amazon to create more jobs in the United States over the past decade than any other company — hundreds of thousands of jobs across 42 states. Amazon employees make a minimum of $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum wage (which we have urged Congress to increase).”

貝佐斯還說，亞馬遜正在為員工培訓花費超過7億美元，其投資在建築等領域創造了近70萬個間接就業機會。

蘋果：我們的應用商店政策是公平的

蘋果知道其應用商店政策將受到嚴格審查，但它認為其指導方針同樣適用於所有開發者，並且“確保高質量、可靠和安全的使用者體驗”

尤其是蘋果，由於其透過應用商店（appstore）分發的應用程式購買產品收取30%的佣金而受到抨擊。不過，蒂姆•庫克認為，這些佣金低於競爭對手，也低於App Store之前的服務。

“After beginning with 500 app, today the App Store hosts more than 1.7 million — only 60 of which are Apple software. Clearly, if Apple is a gatekeeper, what we have done is open the gate wider. We want to get every app we can on the Store, not keep them off.”

facebook：我們沒有’我們沒有獲得競爭對手，而是讓他們成為競爭對手

扎克伯格開場白中一個更有趣的部分是，他為自己的公司收購Instagram和WhatsApp辯護，一些批評人士稱，這兩次收購讓Facebook吞併了新興的競爭對手，鞏固了市場。然而，扎克伯格說，圖片分享和資訊服務之所以佔據主導地位，是因為他們能夠訪問Facebook的大量資源。

“Following its acquisition, Instagram was able to get help stabilizing infrastructure and controlling runaway spam. It also benefited from the ability to plug into Facebook’s self-serve ads system, sales team and existing advertiser relati***hips to drive monetization, and was able to build products including IG Direct and IG Video that used Facebook’s technology and infrastructure. Before it was acquired, WhatsApp was a paid app with a reputation for secure communicati***; together we built on that by introducing end-to-end encryption and making it free to use. Since its acquisition, WhatsApp has also been able to develop products such as voice and video calling that were built on Facebook’s technology stack.

“These benefits came about as a result of our acquisition of those companies, and would not have happened had we not made those acquisiti***.”

除了談到Facebook收購Instagram和WhatsApp外，扎克伯格的開場白還再次呼籲加強對Facebook的監管。

谷歌：我們的投資保持了美國科技的競爭力

最後，正如美國和中國一樣’谷歌在國際科技領域的地位日益突出’s Sundar Pichai說它的谷歌’中國的投資將使美國保持領先地位。

“Every year, we are among the world’s biggest investors in research and development. At the end of 2019, our R&D spend had increased almost 10 times over 10 years, from $2.8 billion to $26 billion. We’ve invested over $90 billion over the last 5 Years.

Through these investments, our teams of engineers are helping America solidify its position as the global leader in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, self-driving cars, and quantum computing. For example, last fall, our team of researchers based here in the U.S. was the first to reach a quantum computing milestone, a discovery that could eventually lead to new breakthroughs in medicine and more efficient batteries.”

這四位執行長將於今天晚些時候在國會作證。