On the afternoon of September 22, Beijing time, it was reported that the British digital media regulator Ofcom said today that it would conduct an antitrust investigation on cloud services of Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
北京时间9月22日下午消息，据报道，英国数字传媒监管机构“英国通信管理局（Ofcom）今日表示，将对亚马逊、谷歌和微软的云服务展开反垄断调查。
Ofcom, which is mainly responsible for regulating broadcasting, communications and postal services, said today that it would conduct a series of investigations on the digital market, including cloud computing, Internet communications and intelligent devices. This means that British regulators have taken a new step in reviewing large US technology companies.
Ofcom主要负责监管广播、通信和邮政服务，该机构今日称，将对包括云计算、互联网通信和智能设备在内的数字市场展开一系列调查。这意味着在审查美国大型科技公司方面，英国监管机构又迈出了新的一步。
Ofcom said that it would first investigate the cloud services of Amazon (AWS), Microsoft (Azure) and Google to assess whether they restrict innovation and hinder fair competition and development of the industry. Ofcom said that the scale of the UK public cloud infrastructure market was about 15 billion pounds (about 16.85 billion dollars), and the cloud services of the three companies accounted for about 81% of the revenue.
Ofcom表示，将首先调查亚马逊（AWS）、微软（Azure）和谷歌的云服务，以评估它们是否限制了创新，阻碍了该行业的公平竞争和发展。Ofcom称，英国公共云基础设施市场的规模约为150亿英镑（约合168.5亿美元），而上述三家公司的云服务占到了约81%的营收。
Ofcom plans to complete this review within the next 12 months and issue a final report, which will include relevant concerns and recommendations. If Ofcom finds that these three companies are harming competition, it may take further action. Selina Chadha, an executive of Ofcom, also pointed out that at present, Ofcom has not reached an agreement on "whether these cloud giants engage in anti competitive behavior".
Ofcom计划在未来12个月内完成此次审查，并发布最终报告，其中将包括相关担忧和提出的建议。如果Ofcom发现这三家公司正在损害竞争，可能会采取进一步的行动。Ofcom高管赛琳娜·查德哈（Selina Chadha）同时指出，目前Ofcom尚未就“这些云巨头是否从事反竞争行为”达成一致意见。
Amazon, Google and Microsoft have not commented on this.
对此，亚马逊、谷歌和微软尚未发表评论。
In addition to cloud services, Ofcom plans to investigate other digital markets next year, including personal messaging and virtual assistants (such as Amazon Alexa). Ofcom said that the agency was interested in how Meta's WhatsApp, Apple's Facetime, Zoom and other services affected traditional calls and messaging, as well as the competitive situation in the digital assistant, networked TV and smart speaker markets.
除了云服务，Ofcom还计划在明年对其他数字市场展开调查，包括个人消息（personal messaging）和虚拟助手（如亚马逊Alexa）。Ofcom称，该机构对Meta的WhatsApp、苹果的Facetime和Zoom等服务如何影响传统通话和消息传递，以及数字助手、联网电视和智能音箱市场的竞争局势感兴趣。
Chadha said in a statement: "The way we live, work, play and do business has been changed by digital services With the continuous growth of the number, the technical and economic problems faced by regulators have also increased. That's why we started this survey. We need to review these digital markets, identify any competition issues, and ensure that these services are fair and friendly to people and businesses that depend on them. "
查德哈在一份声明中称：“我们生活、工作、娱乐和做生意的方式，已经被数字服务改变了。但随着平台、设备和网络（服务于内容的）数量的不断增长，监管机构面临的技术和经济问题也随之增多。这就是为什么要启动这项调查的原因，我们要审查这些数字市场，找出任何竞争问题，并确保这些服务对依赖它们的人和企业公平和友好。”
At present, Microsoft's cloud services are facing an official investigation by the European Commission. In March this year, Microsoft's cloud computing business was complained by three European competitors, who said that Microsoft had damaged the fair competition in the cloud computing service market and restricted consumers' choices.
当前，微软的云服务正面临欧盟委员会的正式调查。今年3月，微软云计算业务遭到了欧洲三家竞争对手的投诉，称微软破坏了云计算服务市场的公平竞争，限制了消费者的选择。