Tech titans meet Congress –Our digital world is controlled by two companies
Bottom Line: While Congressional hearings created a series of headaches, and in my opinion rightfully so, after Facebook’s admitted issues with bias and Google’s proven search bias via Project Veritas’s recent expose – one thing that isn’t set to change anytime soon is their power. I’m the first to point out that in technology the mighty can fall and will quickly.
- The first consumer internet company – Prodigy
- The first browser – Netscape
- The first dominate search engine – Yahoo
- The dominate internet service provider – AOL
- The first smart phone – Palm
You get the idea, even Jeff Bezos has suggested that tech titans have a lifespan that only lasts a few decades (which isn’t necessarily good news for Amazon if he’s right – they’re now 25 years old). But as the companies were making their cases for why they should be left alone by regulators, here’s the latest market share info demonstrating the consolidated power of the few, or should I say two based on world-wide market share.
- Browser:Google – 64%
- Search:Google – 93%
- Social Media:Facebook – 74%
Again, that’s world-wide market share! It’s arguable that Facebook and Google are more powerful with all of the information at their disposal than most governments around the world. After all, they hold the cards and the information. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, is this the technology equivalent? Google’s original mantra, “Don’t be evil” was eliminated years ago. What do they stand for? Can they be trusted? If they wanted to overthrow governments, could they? Isn’t that essentially what Project Veritas exposed recently? Things that make you go hmm... And to the point of Senator John Kennedy who said that Facebook already can’t be trusted with information let alone a crypto currency. It’s hard to argue the point.