nov 19, 2019 - We’re Stuck With the Tech Giants. But They’re Stuck With Each Other

Description:

Such lopsided relationships as Apple and Spotify’s provide a preview of the way much bigger conflicts might emerge in the future. The genuine tech empires have always been in competition, but until recently they’ve always had plenty of room to expand in different directions. There were plenty of users to go around, and plenty of ways to make money from each of them. Amazon could dominate retail and hosting. Facebook could dominate social advertising. Google could keep its control over search and mapping and online video, through which it manages a massive advertising marketplace. Their collective success enlarged the tech industry as a whole and created new opportunities within it, as well as nearby.

When imperial ambition came into direct contact — such as when Google tried to launch its Google Plus social network, or when Facebook tried to create a smartphone platform — failures were softened by continued expansion elsewhere. It was a prosperous era for those that were a part of it; less so for any company, or industry, or system, that happened to be in the way. (See: retail; media; democracy.) Everything was growing, and future growth was limitless. Among the American tech superpowers, creeping interdependence has likewise been accepted as a necessary, and even desirable, component of a new digital order. But the end of explosive growth, combined with external pressures stemming in part from the worldwide turn against globalization, will illuminate the ways in which the tech giants have power over one another, and how tenuous are the situations of their smaller proxy states.

Added to timeline:

Date: