<
https://theconversation.com/murdochs-news-corp-has-moved-into-the-mortgage-business-where-are-the-regulators-259039>
"If you want to advertise a house online in Australia, you don’t have many
options. Just two companies dominate the market.
Australia’s largest property listings platform, realestate.com.au, belongs to
digital media company REA Group, which is majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s
US-based media conglomerate News Corporation (News Corp).
REA claims average traffic of 11.9 million viewers per month, substantially
more than that of its nearest rival, Domain.
That’s led to widespread concern about REA’s dominant market power and the
potential for price-gouging, which are currently subject to an ongoing probe by
the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Meanwhile, my research has revealed that REA has expanded into mortgage
lending, an important new direction which, until now, has escaped attention.
The implications here are worth considering. News Corp, a foreign-owned media
company, now has a direct stake in framing the Australian housing narrative and
influencing policy, while profiting through its property platform from
listings, data, and its own mortgages.
It’s a shrewd business strategy. But Australia currently doesn’t have a
regulator fit for overseeing such a hybrid entity, raising serious questions
about who is keeping watch."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
