UK firms cite Big Tech dominance as primary barrier to growth

The research, based on polling of 417 UK firms by Opinium, highlights a systemic crisis: 79% of businesses dependent on digital infrastructure fear that large tech providers are actively stifling competition. The impact is tangible, with over a third of respondents abandoning product launches in the last two years specifically because a single dominant player controlled the market. Beyond lost opportunities, the dependency is absolute; nearly seven in ten firms report that migrating to an alternative provider would be prohibitively expensive or technically impossible.

IPPR warns that the UK economy is currently tethered to infrastructure controlled by a handful of overseas entities, such as Google, which manages over 90% of searches, and Microsoft and Amazon, which dominate the cloud services sector. This concentration threatens the domestic AI industry, as homegrown startups risk being undermined by their reliance on foreign-controlled systems. While the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act provides the Competition and Markets Authority with the necessary tools to intervene, experts argue that the regulator requires more robust political backing to exercise its authority effectively and challenge the status quo.