DC and Sacramento: don’t discard my digital American Dream

OPINION – As a child of Nigerian immigrants, the American Dream is in my DNA. After college, I needed a few years to figure out my dream, and then it was only a matter of time before I left my job and became a full-time entrepreneur. It’s really cool that my business combines two great human passions – music and social connections – and delivers both in a simple mobile app.

I remember in seventh grade signing up for Facebook, and being so excited by the power of online communities. Now, as a business owner, I understand deeply how broadband connectivity and simple software make success possible even for small teams with modest investment. I also understand why there are concerns about Big Tech, but it’s critical that elected officials and thought leaders, particularly progressives I often agree with, appreciate how the Apple and Google app platforms are foundations of small business success.

My startup really lives on the mobile app platforms. Our premise is that the music people listen to tells a lot about us, and who we would enjoy meeting. Our users authorize access to their Spotify and Apple Music accounts, and we connect them to people with similar tastes so they can meet new friends and concert buddies.

Most people think about apps as global. But our business is uniquely local as we partner with music venues, promoters, and artists. To grow these partnerships and our community, we run location-based advertisements in the cities where we launched first – Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle. It’s important that platforms can access location data so we can focus our advertising in cities where we operate.

App platforms incorporate sophisticated data security and payment systems that customers value and businesses need, so our team doesn’t have to build those and can instead focus on our unique needs. Perhaps most importantly, consumers know that Apple and Google have approved us for the app stores, so they can trust that we don’t have malicious malware or spyware and we are a legitimate business.

Unfortunately, California and Washington D.C. officials are pursuing legislation and lawsuits that could really hurt small app businesses. It’s perplexing that these public officials think they are leveling the playing field for competitors of the digital platforms, while for twenty years the platforms have been leveling the playing field for small businesses like ours.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing the Google Play store, claiming it monopolizes the market for Android apps. That seems odd to me because I have competition options: I can already choose to skip the Play Store and let people download my app directly, and within the Play Store I can pick my own payment processing partner.

It’s perplexing that these public officials think they are leveling the playing field for competitors of the digital platforms, while for twenty years the platforms have been leveling the playing field for small businesses like ours.

In Washington DC, there are bills about increasing competition among digital platforms, including app platforms. More competition may sound better, but more app platforms to reach the same number of consumers would impose extra costs on us with no additional return. We would have to hire many more software developers if, for example, LG, Samsung, and every small device brand had separate app stores with different coding languages and rules.

My small company’s success is inextricably tied to the digital ecosystem. App platforms provide huge audience reach, consistency and reliability, and protect consumers’ data. Digital advertising platforms help us affordably reach key audiences so we add new customers. If platforms are significantly disrupted by the government, it would be very difficult for app-based companies to expand to new markets and grow.

As an experienced software engineer and product manager, I understand the creativity, effort, and expense needed to build the platforms that so many small businesses stand on top of. I have great respect for lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington DC. But when they scrutinize the big online platforms we know so well, it’s critical that they avoid disrupting the entire ecosystem and hurting the growth of exciting small businesses like mine.

Chudi Iregbulem is the founder and CEO of Beatmatch, a mobile app that helps music lovers find friends and things to do based on music tastes.