The Economist delves into the modern perils of tech titans such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Jacob Miramar

2018-01-12 07:37:00 Fri ET

The Economist delves into the modern perils of tech titans such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. These key tech titans often receive plaudits for making the world a better place. However, some pundits accuse these giants of being BAADD or big, addictive, anti-competitive, and destructive to democracy. Politicians from European Union and to U.S. Congress grill their CEOs; regulators impose taxes and fines on these tech titans; and one-time backers warn of their power to cause harm.

Techlash complaints, privacy issues, and fake news are rampant these days. Big tech platforms, particularly Amazon, Facebook, and Google, raise grave concerns about fair competition and consumer protection because these tech platforms often benefit from legal exemptions. Unlike publishers and media firms, Facebook and Google rake in hefty ad profits with minimal monitor and responsibility for content curation. For many years, American buyers on Amazon need not pay sales taxes. Also, Apple keep its profits as large offshore cash stockpiles in order to legitimately avoid paying U.S. corporate income taxes.

These platform orchestrators provide digital infrastructure for online ad revenue, consumer data, and service provision. Most of their services appear to be free, but consumers need to pay for these services by giving away their personal data. Their high stock valuation reinforces digital dominance and market concentration.

For instance, Amazon accounts for about half of U.S. online sales while Facebook and Google attract 70% of online advertisements in America. It is highly likely for regulatory agencies to tame these tech titans by probing into privacy invasion and tax avoidance. Either these tech giants break up into smaller entities (as Alphabet now prepares for Google and other subsidiaries), or the tech titans pay in the form of taxes, fines, or compliance costs.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Fundamental factors often reflect macroeconomic innovations and so help inform better stock investment decisions.

Jacob Miramar

2019-08-22 11:35:00 Thursday ET

Fundamental factors often reflect macroeconomic innovations and so help inform better stock investment decisions.

Fundamental factors often reflect macroeconomic innovations and so help inform better stock investment decisions. Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama and his long-ti

+See More

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold.

Olivia London

2018-05-19 09:29:00 Saturday ET

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin indicates that the Trump team puts the trade war with China on hold. The interim suspension of U.S. tariffs should offer in

+See More

President Trump unveils his ambitious $1.5 trillion public infrastructure plan.

Daisy Harvey

2018-02-11 07:30:00 Sunday ET

President Trump unveils his ambitious $1.5 trillion public infrastructure plan.

President Trump unveils his ambitious $1.5 trillion public infrastructure plan. Trump proposes offering $100 billion in federal incentives to encourage stat

+See More

Platforms benefit from positive network effects, scale economies, and information cascades.

Rose Prince

2019-07-25 16:42:00 Thursday ET

Platforms benefit from positive network effects, scale economies, and information cascades.

Platforms benefit from positive network effects, scale economies, and information cascades. There are at least 2 major types of highly valuable platforms: i

+See More

Federal Reserve normalizes the current interest rate hike to signal its own independence from the White House.

Apple Boston

2019-01-08 17:46:00 Tuesday ET

Federal Reserve normalizes the current interest rate hike to signal its own independence from the White House.

President Trump forces the Federal Reserve to normalize the current interest rate hike to signal its own monetary policy independence from the White House.

+See More

Product market competition and online ecommerce help constrain money supply growth with low inflation.

Peter Prince

2019-09-25 15:33:00 Wednesday ET

Product market competition and online ecommerce help constrain money supply growth with low inflation.

Product market competition and online e-commerce help constrain money supply growth with low inflation. Key e-commerce retailers such as Amazon, Alibaba, an

+See More