
Prepare for backlash against Big Tech - mathattack
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogertrapp/2017/12/27/prepare-for-a-fightback-against-big-tech/#7746e5e755a2
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nathanasmith
I keep hearing about this so-called backlash, the government is going to do
this, the EU is going to do that. Yet Google/Facebook/Amazon et al's grip
grows ever tighter. The bottom line is people have chosen these companies as
the gatekeepers to the internet. I don't like it the least bit. Especially
since it makes my life harder as a web site operator. I have to do everything
I can to please the mighty Google and if I don't I'm as much as erased from
the internet. It didn't used to be that way but that's how it is now. These
companies have massive power and what the EU or anybody else plans to actually
do about it is beyond me. We'll see.

~~~
moron4hire
> I have to do everything I can to please the mighty Google

Like what? What specific things are you having to do today that you wouldn't
have had to do in, say, 1998? What sort of behaviors have you learned get you
penalized by Google?

Because I've kept running all my sites in the same, unassuming, no-SEO way for
the last 20 years and they've always been fairly well ranked in their
particular niche topics.

~~~
nathanasmith
> Like what? What specific things are you having to do today that you wouldn't
> have had to do in, say, 1998?

Not going to go into my strategy. I'll just say what I do works for me. Until
it doesn't. Like in March when Google made the so-called "Fred" update. Sites
that had been running for years just like yours went from the 5th position on
page one to somewhere on page 10. Some sites went from page 10 to page 1. On
the whole it was a net negative with no rhyme or reason to it, i.e., some
lower quality sites ranked higher and vice versa. By the way, none of these
sites are spam, are cloaked, aren't https, no PBN crap, etc. They were just
there one day and gone the next. Many many people had the same experience. If
you didn't then that's great. My point is not woe is me, down with Google. My
point is Google being a gatekeeper has an immense amount of power and a subtle
change by them can mean the difference between being "on the internet" and off
of it. Fortunately I have many sites so I'll survive but a lot of people
don't.

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thisisit
> There was a challenge to this idea at the end of the 20th century, when
> business school academics the late C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel claimed that
> the era of conglomerates was over.

> Although many large companies were broken up on the back of this mantra,
> there is little dispute that size is back - with a vengeance.

I think it's always a mistake to use a singular data point to proclaim if
something is dead.

That said, consolidation has become the new norm. Companies and executives
trying to either get into every other market or consolidating by buying other
companies, hoping synergies will help them keep afloat. This all seems like a
mistake.

Most of the consolidating companies don't achieve the "synergy" dream and end
up with huge amount of debt. So, companies end up being sold for parts ie
broken all over again.

As for the companies getting into every business imaginable, well, they end up
spreading too far too thin without relevant expertise. In the end, there is no
choice but to sell the loss making unit.

~~~
mathattack
Business school academics with consulting practices will say anything to push
their agendas. :-)

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olivermarks
A third of the rise in the S&P 500 stock market index this year is
attributable to Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc.,
Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

That may mean the advances these companies represent are becoming economically
significant. Internet sales, for example, now represent 9% of total retailing.

Above from Greg Ip/WSJ 'A Tech-Driven Boom Is Coming; Please Be Patient'.
[https://www.wsj.com/.../a-tech-driven-boom-is-coming-
please-...](https://www.wsj.com/.../a-tech-driven-boom-is-coming-please-be-
patient-1514390400)

Given the lobbying power of these economically important global business
platforms it seems unlikely local 'government' will do very much to rock their
boat...

~~~
solomatov
>Given the lobbying power of these economically important global business
platforms it seems unlikely local 'government' will do very much to rock their
boat...

They will do. They did it in the past. See, for example,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_States_antit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_States_antitrust_law#Progressive_era)

~~~
olivermarks
Last century antitrust (and local government) was powerful. This century the
only notable (and arguably parochial) antitrust action was against MSFT
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_States_antit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_United_States_antitrust_law#21st_century)

We are now in a far more globalized economy, and the US profits from the
dominant FMAG stocks and hegemony. The EU will definitely attack this, whether
they have teeth is questionable.

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MollyR
I thought that backlash already occurred in 2016 with a certain election.

I find it a little scary to see how much worse the backlash might look like.

~~~
toomuchtodo
For too long Big Tech has skirted regulations and is siphoning an outsized
amount of profit from the economy without contributing back (Apple, Amazon),
damaging the social fabric without care (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat,
Twitter), or consuming and aggregating vast amounts of personal data for
profit (Google, Facebook).

Did anyone in tech not think the reckoning would come? “Are we the baddies?”
It’s like working for Marlboro with hoodies and catered lunches.

~~~
iainmerrick
But the bulk of the population shows little interest in attacking Big Tech,
and as other commenters here have noticed, the government's willingness to
step in and regulate has greatly diminished.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Europe’s willingness to step in has not greatly diminished. The US government
is currently a dumpster fire, with predictable results.

As a US citizen, thanks Europe!

~~~
iainmerrick
I'd love to think you're right, but these companies are mostly based in the US
and make most of their profits in the US and China. I don't think the EU has
enough leverage to radically change the status quo.

