Competition policies for the internet market in Colombia: Impact on entrepreneurship
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2019-01-01
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Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited
Resumen
The internet is one of the most important services worldwide, its use and increase in coverage are between the main concerns of development agendas. These markets tend to be highly concentrated, and competition policies have few tools to differentiate between companies with market power or possible abuse of it. The development, innovation, and research in the technology and telecommunications sector is growing and is promoted by the government. There are many entrepreneurs that need broadband for their business; that is the main reason for studying this sector. In Colombia, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) made recommendations for the telecommunications market, including the Internet, to improve not only the indicators but also the policies. The competition policies for the internet market in Colombia generate an impact on consumers and of course on entrepreneurship. The competition policy is made for the companies that have direct contact with the final consumer, so the wholesaler can manage different prices and practices that can affect the final consumer but there is not a clear policy for them. The aim is to analyze the Internet market in Colombia between 2010 and 2015 in a theoretical and empirical way, what is the impact of vertical integration on companies, competition policies and especially in the entrepreneurship. In Colombia, 75% of the population lives in the urban area. According to data from the OECD, the gap in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in large and small companies is high, only 20% of small medium enterprises (SMEs) are connected to the internet; this figure is low, given that 96.4% of companies in Colombia are microenterprises. The competition policy for the internet sector in Colombia is focused on regulating the retail market, which has direct contact with the end users of the service. It is common to hear that the superintendence of commerce, industry, and tourism has sanctioned an enterprise, but they still have a lot to do in the regulation of the wholesale market of the internet. The concentration of the internet market in Colombia has a clear impact in all the entrepreneurship because, compared with other countries, in Colombia is more expensive to work with internet so, this has an impact in innovation, research, and competition. © Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, ECIE 2019. All rights reserved.