European Commision on Digital Platforms

In the Economist (registration required) on pricing and Google in the online world.   Are Google (and other large digital platform holders) preventing competition by buying up potential competitors early with their cash?  Also the data resources needed?   In particular with regard to online platforms. Very difficult to forecast the future of small startups.  (Been asked to look at the forecasting aspect of this, so some of the tabs will be filled out later)