# data[].attributes.headline
“The ideal solution is really somewhere in between, continuing to have companies create value, but taking into consideration the European approach of fair allocation,”

# data[].attributes.subject
“The ideal solution is really somewhere in between, continuing to have companies create value, but taking into consideration the European approach of fair allocation,”

# data[].attributes.body
Van Alstyne , Quote

# data[].attributes.headline
Pros And Cons of Breaking Up Big Tech Companies

# data[].attributes.subject
Pros And Cons of Breaking Up Big Tech Companies

# data[].attributes.body
Guillem
Main idea
Breaking up tech giants will involve the loss of innovation since the ideas will get narrower and the gap for development will reduce significantly. Other factors involved are damaged because these ideas make them vanish away from the expert's sense of improvement.

Arguments
-Investments all over the tech companies have improved the utility of AI (artificial intelligence). Thanks to them, remarkable progress has been made in vehicles, wearables, robots, and more. Breaking companies such as amazon would mean sacrificing this ambition of knowledge and understanding of technology.
-If a broke up would ever be done, consumers will eventually choose a single social network making it seem as it would never have been breaking up, leaving up the other related ones to become isolated and never get a chance to impact the population.
-It is believed that a break up of tech giants would lead to a dip in prices. However, experts point out this may be a myth causing economical problems. After a split, a fair market would be established that would cause small businesses to get a range of competition between them, since the startups can't gain much profit for it, they will eventually increase the cost of digital services, including text messages, emails or even research of information.

Dialog
Our point of view relates to these arguments since they seem solid and have an established objective. Making clear the non-sense of breaking up giant tech companies such as Apple or Amazon.

Summary
Tech giants should get dispersed since it would cause them serious problems as well as influence the economical sectors that are involved. A noticeable decrease of constant development would get ahead as well as the difficulty to make technology a source of evolution for humanity. As the years passed, people would stop thinking of ideas that could increase the efficiency of their work or even ours, making a hole that would get technology to its end.
It would also be useless to divide these companies since after people get used to one of them, the surroundings will get noticed and so that they face the same type of mechanism, they will all end up using the same service again, undoing the break-up that had been accomplished.
Finally, research clarifies the increase of incomes that the population would suffer if this method was used. This would be because of the lack that small companies have them to have access to affordable methods of technology such as messaging or exploring, leading them to a unique solution, get incomes every time someone sends a text message or even phone calling its friends/family.

APA
Praharsha, A. (2021, March 5). Pros and Cons of Breaking up big tech.
Retrieved from https://www.itpro.com/data-insights/big-data/358795/pros-and-cons-of-breaking-up-big-tech

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We analyze the impact of breaking up powerful and far-reaching data-opolies

Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon undeniably hold massive power over consumers and the global economy. They're collectively called the Big Tech.

Crushing all competition, these tech giants picked up a combined market cap of $7.5 trillion in 2020 - the same year the COVID-19 pandemic smashed the broader economy.

Big Tech's burgeoning success can be attributed to a range of online services that are hard to break free from. From Microsoft's Teams for office collaboration to Google's productivity tools, Big Tech's boom isn't without reason.

However, the rising data privacy debate is proof that all is not well with Big Tech. Senator Elizabeth Warren cited Big Tech as a threat to democracy, and former-President Trump equated them to monopolies. "They've bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation," said Warren.

In a strange turn of events, Big Tech has fallen victim to its own success. Google's parent company, Alphabet, is facing increased scrutiny over its data-collection policies. Amazon is under pressure for its anti-competitive conduct. Plus, Apple has attracted yet another lawsuit for throttling older iPhones.

As the alleged trade monopoly continues, a question remains - would it be beneficial or detrimental to break apart megacompanies? Below, we've set out the pros and cons of breaking up Big Tech to help you pick your side of the debate.

Pros of breaking up Big Tech
1. More opportunities for small businesses
Google answers 92% of the world's search queries, and Amazon sells nearly everything a consumer may seek, leaving small business owners with little or no market space. Plus, buying smaller rivals is another trade practice Big Tech firms exercise to protect their dominance. For instance, Google has acquired over 270 companies since 2001. Over the last decade, Facebook acquired numerous rivals, including WhatsApp and Instagram, to kill the competition.

One way to ensure fair trade across industries is to bar Big Tech from entering adjacent markets. This will also prevent Big Tech from getting bigger.
2. Reduced data privacy concerns
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified and publicly apologized for a massive data breach in 2018, users worldwide questioned the platform's ability to keep their information safe. Many believe Big Tech is increasingly seeking to monitor and dictate what consumers see and buy online. Targeted ads from Google have summoned similar reactions.

Once again, healthy competition can help end users' privacy dilemmas. The more players looking to offer secure platforms, the greater the pressure on Big Tech to increase users' data privacy.
3. Reduced national security concerns
For months, Russian hackers gained visibility into staff emails sent via Microsoft Office 365 at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) after breaking into the NTIA's office software. The incident highlights how Big Tech can open a doorway into the government's sensitive processes, military, and intelligence operations.

Regulating Big Teach's outreach can minimize the scope and severity of cyber attacks on national security systems.
Cons of breaking up Big Tech 1. Loss of Research and Development
From investment in artificial intelligence (AI) to the money put into eliminating COVID-19, large companies are rightfully taking credit. Google has launched two funds, Gradient Ventures and theGoogle Assistant Investment Program, to support AI and machine learning startups.

Similarly, Amazon has spent over $20 billion on investing and acquiring at least 128 AI startups worldwide.

These investments have led to remarkable progress in autonomous vehicles, wearables, robots, and more. Breaking these companies up would also mean sacrificing the innovation and technological advancement that comes from them.
2. Impractical market fragmentation
The idea of breaking up large companies may seem attractive, but experts have argued about its practicality again and again.

For example, if the government broke up a social media giant into smaller social networks, it may give an illusion of choice. However, this approach is less desirable to users looking to manage all their communications in one place. Many would eventually tip in favor of one social network, essentially undoing the break-up.
3. Higher service costs
It's believed that healthier competition among smaller companies will lead to a dip in prices, but experts are now pointing out that this may be a myth. Big Tech's virtually free tools and services are hard to replace, given our dependence on them.

Even so, Big Tech's split would instill a fair market, encouraging small businesses to introduce a new and competitive range of products and services. However, since startups can't benefit from a free business model, there's a high chance that end-users will pay heavily for each and every digital service they use. This may include daily emails, digital navigation maps, analytical tools for business, and more.
A Final Word
While free services are economical, the approach slowly but steadily kills innovation.

"The ideal solution is really somewhere in between, continuing to have companies create value, but taking into consideration the European approach of fair allocation," says Van Alstyne, Questrom professor and coauthor of "Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You."

By ensuring interoperability and data portability across rival products and services, it is indeed possible to restore balance in trade.

Featured Resources

Modern governance: The how-to guide
Free Download
Cloud operational excellence

Improve your board's performance
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# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pros and cons of breaking up big tech | IT PRO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon undeniably hold massive power over consumers and the global economy. They're collectively called the Big Tech. Crushing all competition, these tech giants picked up a combined market cap of $7.5 trillion in 2020 - the same year the COVID-19 pandemic smashed the broader economy.

# data[].attributes.headline
People think tech giants have too much power    

# data[].attributes.subject
People think tech giants have too much power    

# data[].attributes.body
Cesar
Main idea
77% of tech employees think that apple, amazon,google and facebook have too much power.

Arguments
-40% percent of them go even further by saying that technology giants cause more harm than good

Dialog
Our thoughts reading this was very frightening because the own workers of the companies saying that their own employers are harmful is not very reassuring.

Summary
A survey of 1,500 tech employees found that 77% think that Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have too much power. Only 8% disagreed, and 40% believe that tech does more harm than good. More than 68% want their companies to partner with or be acquired by a Big Tech player, and three quarters said Big Tech companies should be allowed to acquire other firms. Just over 40% think the tech giants should be broken up.

Lovejoy, B., & Lovejoy, B. (2021, March 15). 77% of tech employees think Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have too much power. 9to5Mac. https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/15/tech-employees-survey/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A survey of 1,500 tech employees found that 77% of them think that Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have too much power. Only 8% disagreed.

Tech workers were also asked about a wide range of other tech issues, including working with law enforcement, China, and legislating AI...

The survey was carried out by from the publisher of Politico.

To take a pulse of where tech employees across the country stand on key issues facing the industry, Protocol is introducing its first Tech Employee Survey, a survey of 1,504 employees nationwide, from C-suite level executives to associates. They hail mostly from large tech companies - almost 40% of respondents work at companies with annual revenue over $500 million and most of the companies have more than 1,000 employees.

The first topic was whether tech giants are too powerful.

A whopping 78% of the tech employees we surveyed agreed that the tech industry is too powerful, with just 11% disagreeing. The same goes for Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple. Over 77% of respondents said those companies have too much power, and just over 8% disagreed.

Not only did the majority say that the industry is too powerful, but around 40% also said that tech does more harm than good. Only about 45% of tech employees disagreed, signaling that even within the industry, tech workers worry about the negative impact technology is having on the world.

And yet, remedies are in short supply. More than 68% want their companies to partner with or be acquired by a Big Tech player, and three quarters said Big Tech companies should be allowed to acquire other firms. Just over 40% think that Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet and Apple should be broken up. Despite their concerns about tech's power and negative influence, tech employees don't see antitrust enforcement as the solution.

On China, a majority think the US government has been too aggressive, worrying that an equally robust response from China could cripple US tech companies.

The Trump administration adopted a hawkish stance toward China's tech industry, placing dozens of companies on the country's trade blacklist and signing multiple executive orders aimed at barring Chinese social media apps - most notably TikTok - from the US. Tech employees by and large said they think the standoff should end, expressing an openness toward working more closely with Chinese tech firms.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said they agree that US restrictions on Chinese technology companies have gone too far, while 28% said they're neutral on it. And 60% agreed that U.S. tech companies should work more closely with Chinese tech companies. Ultimately, a majority of respondents said they believe the future of the tech industry is at stake, with 58% agreeing that a cold war with China could "cripple U.S. tech companies."

There are limits to their openness to Chinese tech, however - 46% said they agree Chinese telecom company Huawei should be banned from the US.

There's concern about AI, especially when it comes to demonstrated issues of AI systems picking up, and amplifying, biases present in society.

AI can supercharge real-world biases and disproportionately harm people of color. Seventy-three percent of respondents said they agree that the government should regulate AI. Only 9% disagreed, and 18% said they are "neutral."

You can check out the other findings over at (If you came to the comments to claim the sample size is meaningless, you can get a quick grounding in sample theory here, and a more detailed one here.)

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
77% of tech employees think Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have too much power

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A survey of 1,500 tech employees found that 77% of them think that Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have too much power. Only 8% disagreed. Tech workers were also asked about a wide range of other tech issues, including working with law enforcement, China, and legislating AI...

# data[].attributes.body
Joaquina
Main idea
Facebook uses its algorithm to show people negativity, which normally gets a more loaded reaction and gets more interaction, providing more profit for the app. This app completely controls everything that reaches us, so it can take things out of context and make people form uneducated opinions, making people hate one another

Arguments
-Facebook purposely forms body dysmorphia and eating disorders in teenagers with the algorithm.
-Politics are often forced to use negativity and get into conflicts with their rivals to spread their ideology because it's one of the only things the algorithm will show people, even if they didn't want to in the first place.

Dialog
As teenagers, we should be well informed about how the platforms we use work and never get into the internet which could have been a misunderstanding or could lead to the more serious stuff. The internet can be brainwashing and it's important to not take things out of context and be conscious about what happens in the social media we use.

Summary
People need to find a way of not being so controlled by the media without creating a dystopian no internet supervised society, they need to search for a balanced 3rd option that allows a non manipulated healthy social media environment.

APA
Tristan Harris - Facebook & Rethinking Big Tech | The Daily Show. (2021, October 6). [Viedo]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=YurYAnzirsxw&ab-channel= TheDailyShowWithTrevorWithNoah.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tristan Harris - Facebook & Rethinking Big Tech | The Daily Show

# data[].attributes.headline
Pros And Cons of Breaking Up Big Tech Companies

# data[].attributes.subject
Pros And Cons of Breaking Up Big Tech Companies

# data[].attributes.body
Guillem
Main idea
Percentages of success tell that breaking down the tech giants will allow them to duplicate their value because of the creation of tiny sub-companies coming from the same mastermind.

Arguments
3 main points of improvement are stated:
-As we already said, companies could transform into small businesses increasing the opportunities for improvement. Making them fair trade sources of power that could trade without problems.
-It is questioned the ability of giant tech companies to assure the safeness of each member's data making it not very trustworthy. This makes big techs' pressure get bigger because of the need to increase users' privacy.
-Big tech can open a doorway into the government's, military, or intelligence operations. A regulation on the outreach can minimize the cyberattacks some powerful entities such as the national security systems receive.

Dialog
It is true that some improvements could have been done to the companies considered as tech giants but it is crucial to take into consideration that the reputation of those affects the possibility to change after installing already in the people concepts.

Summary
The main worry on people's minds is to get their information hacked via their account on a network. It is said that when breaking up big companies, the security of databases becomes greater, reducing the possibilities of data breaches into the files of the network. This could be a clear remedy regarding the emerging lack of privacy that some tech giants such as the Facebook face.
Not only privacy of the average people are in danger when adding to a social network but also the possibility of hackers breaking having great doorways into the security systems of power sources such as government, laboratory, or even military. For months, Russian hackers gained visibility into staff emails sent via Microsoft Office 365 at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Last but not least, the job opportunities that are presented when breaking up giant companies are huge. One way to ensure fair trade across industries is to avoid Big Tech from entering adjacent markets. Also preventing Big Tech from getting bigger.

APA
Praharsha, A. (2021, March 5). Pros and Cons of Breaking up big tech.
Retrieved from https://www.itpro.com/data-insights/big-data/358795/pros-and-cons-of-breaking-up-big-tech

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We analyze the impact of breaking up powerful and far-reaching data-opolies

Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon undeniably hold massive power over consumers and the global economy. They're collectively called the Big Tech.

Crushing all competition, these tech giants picked up a combined market cap of $7.5 trillion in 2020 - the same year the COVID-19 pandemic smashed the broader economy.

Big Tech's burgeoning success can be attributed to a range of online services that are hard to break free from. From Microsoft's Teams for office collaboration to Google's productivity tools, Big Tech's boom isn't without reason.

However, the rising data privacy debate is proof that all is not well with Big Tech. Senator Elizabeth Warren cited Big Tech as a threat to democracy, and former-President Trump equated them to monopolies. "They've bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation," said Warren.

In a strange turn of events, Big Tech has fallen victim to its own success. Google's parent company, Alphabet, is facing increased scrutiny over its data-collection policies. Amazon is under pressure for its anti-competitive conduct. Plus, Apple has attracted yet another lawsuit for throttling older iPhones.

As the alleged trade monopoly continues, a question remains - would it be beneficial or detrimental to break apart megacompanies? Below, we've set out the pros and cons of breaking up Big Tech to help you pick your side of the debate.

Pros of breaking up Big Tech
1. More opportunities for small businesses
Google answers 92% of the world's search queries, and Amazon sells nearly everything a consumer may seek, leaving small business owners with little or no market space. Plus, buying smaller rivals is another trade practice Big Tech firms exercise to protect their dominance. For instance, Google has acquired over 270 companies since 2001. Over the last decade, Facebook acquired numerous rivals, including WhatsApp and Instagram, to kill the competition.

One way to ensure fair trade across industries is to bar Big Tech from entering adjacent markets. This will also prevent Big Tech from getting bigger.
2. Reduced data privacy concerns
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified and publicly apologized for a massive data breach in 2018, users worldwide questioned the platform's ability to keep their information safe. Many believe Big Tech is increasingly seeking to monitor and dictate what consumers see and buy online. Targeted ads from Google have summoned similar reactions.

Once again, healthy competition can help end users' privacy dilemmas. The more players looking to offer secure platforms, the greater the pressure on Big Tech to increase users' data privacy.
3. Reduced national security concerns
For months, Russian hackers gained visibility into staff emails sent via Microsoft Office 365 at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) after breaking into the NTIA's office software. The incident highlights how Big Tech can open a doorway into the government's sensitive processes, military, and intelligence operations.

Regulating Big Teach's outreach can minimize the scope and severity of cyber attacks on national security systems.
Cons of breaking up Big Tech 1. Loss of Research and Development
From investment in artificial intelligence (AI) to the money put into eliminating COVID-19, large companies are rightfully taking credit. Google has launched two funds, Gradient Ventures and theGoogle Assistant Investment Program, to support AI and machine learning startups.

Similarly, Amazon has spent over $20 billion on investing and acquiring at least 128 AI startups worldwide.

These investments have led to remarkable progress in autonomous vehicles, wearables, robots, and more. Breaking these companies up would also mean sacrificing the innovation and technological advancement that comes from them.
2. Impractical market fragmentation
The idea of breaking up large companies may seem attractive, but experts have argued about its practicality again and again.

For example, if the government broke up a social media giant into smaller social networks, it may give an illusion of choice. However, this approach is less desirable to users looking to manage all their communications in one place. Many would eventually tip in favor of one social network, essentially undoing the break-up.
3. Higher service costs
It's believed that healthier competition among smaller companies will lead to a dip in prices, but experts are now pointing out that this may be a myth. Big Tech's virtually free tools and services are hard to replace, given our dependence on them.

Even so, Big Tech's split would instill a fair market, encouraging small businesses to introduce a new and competitive range of products and services. However, since startups can't benefit from a free business model, there's a high chance that end-users will pay heavily for each and every digital service they use. This may include daily emails, digital navigation maps, analytical tools for business, and more.
A Final Word
While free services are economical, the approach slowly but steadily kills innovation.

"The ideal solution is really somewhere in between, continuing to have companies create value, but taking into consideration the European approach of fair allocation," says Van Alstyne, Questrom professor and coauthor of "Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work for You."

By ensuring interoperability and data portability across rival products and services, it is indeed possible to restore balance in trade.

Featured Resources

Modern governance: The how-to guide
Free Download
Cloud operational excellence

Improve your board's performance
Download now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pros and cons of breaking up big tech | IT PRO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon undeniably hold massive power over consumers and the global economy. They're collectively called the Big Tech. Crushing all competition, these tech giants picked up a combined market cap of $7.5 trillion in 2020 - the same year the COVID-19 pandemic smashed the broader economy.

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How technology giants manipulate our behaviour

# data[].attributes.subject
How technology giants manipulate our behaviour

# data[].attributes.body
Cesar
Main idea
Tech giants such as apple, amazon or facebook manipulate our behaviour with some designs like likes, swipes, notifications and autoplays. They make being on-line more addictive, less autonomous, and cause pyschological and social harm

Arguments
-Former Google employee Tristan Harris says that all of our minds are “jacked into the system” and “all our minds can be hijacked. We are not as free as we think we are”.
-Tech companies can exploit such information to keep people hooked: manipulating, for example, when people receive ‘likes’ for their posts, ensuring that they arrive when an individual is most likely to feel vulnerable.

Dialog
As teens who use social media daily, we completely agree with what we read and found the video linked very interesting.

Summary
Apple, Facebook and Google have incorporated design features into their mobile devices that make them addictive. Former Google employee Tristan Harris says that all of our minds are "jacked into the system". The Red Notification Icon exploits the psychological susceptibility that makes gambling so compulsive – variable rewards. The pull-down to refresh was originally designed in 2009, and has since become one of the most widely emulated features in apps. Justin Rosenstein designed the like feature for Facebook in 2007 – to create a means to send 'little bits of positivity at the click of a button', creating what he now calls 'bright dings of pseudo-pleasure'.

'Likes' were wildly successful, and hence they spread to a range of other social media platforms, and now it is the short-term pleasure of this social affirmation that is one of the features which drives people to touch, swipe or tap their phone more than 2500 times a day. Technology may be contributing to so-called 'continuous partial attention' – in the attention economy (driven by the needs of advertisers) – everyone is distracted most of the time. This prevents us from getting things done, the opposite of what technology was intended to do. The attention economy thrives on a 'sensationalise, bate and entertain' logic and as a result the media is now is more than ever biased in favour of that which is sensationalist and entertaining. People like Donald Trump do well in this environment because they are good at grabbing attention with their simplistic, emotional and extremist views.

Thompson, A. K. (2017, October 28). How Technology Companies Manipulate our Behaviour. ReviseSociology. https://revisesociology.com/2017/10/28/how-technology-companies-manipulate-our-behaviour/

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Design features such as likes, swipes, notifications and autoplays make being on-line more addictive, less autonomous, and cause pyschological and social harm, at least according to this recent Guardian Article by Paul Lewis: Our minds can be hijacked: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia '.
Below I summarize this article and add in a few comments.
Technology companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google have incorporated a range of design features into their mobile devices, operating systems and social media applications that make them addictive, which results in us spending longer online than we really want to, clicking on links we never intended to and making us more distracted, less rational and more impulsive than ever.

Former Google employee Tristan Harris says that all of our minds are "jacked into the system" and "all our minds can be hijacked. We are not as free as we think we are". Harris believes that tech companies deliberately set out to make their products addictive, as they are oriented to respond to the incentives of an advertising economy and thus experiment with techniques which are most likely to grab people's attention.

As an example, Harris points out that the Facebook icon which notifies users of new activity and 'likes' was originally blue, but no one used it, then they switched it to red, and everyone used it, because red is a trigger colour, which is why it is used as an alarm signal. Now the red icon is everywhere, and every time smartphone users glance at their phones, dozens or hundreds of times a day, they are confronted with small red dots, pleading to be tapped.

The most seductive design, according to Harris, exploits the psychological susceptibility that makes gambling so compulsive - variable rewards. Each time you swipe down you don't know what's coming next, either an avalanche of likes, or nothing, and the action even mirrors that of the slot machine: a human action to 'pull down', and a pause before a variable result. The pull-down to refresh was originally designed in 2009, and has since become one of the most widely emulated features in apps - even though refreshing can now be done automatically, the pull-down function remains, because if users aren't involved in the process, then the experience is less addictive.

Justin Rosenstein designed the like feature for Facebook in 2007 - to create a means to send 'little bits of positivity at the click of a button', creating what he now calls 'bright dings of pseudo-pleasure'. 'Likes' were wildly successful, and hence they spread to a range of other social media platforms, and now it is the short-term pleasure of this social affirmation that is one of the features which drives people to touch, swipe or tap their phone more than 2500 times a day on average.

Tech companies can exploit such information to keep people hooked: manipulating, for example, when people receive 'likes' for their posts, ensuring that they arrive when an individual is most likely to feel vulnerable, or in need of approval, or just bored, and such information can be sold to the highest bidder.

James Williams, a former Google employee who built the metrics system for the company's global search advertising business, but has now turned critic of the industry, describes the tech industry as one which has the 'largest and most centralised form of attentional control in human history' - he had an epiphany moment one day while working at google when he glanced at one of Google's multi-coloured dashboards showing how much of people's attention the company had commandeered for advertisers. He says that he realised 'this is literally a million people that we've persuaded to do this thing that they weren't going to do otherwise.'
Some of the Negatives Effects of Being Online
Firstly, technology may be contributing to so-called 'continuous partial attention' - In the attention economy (driven by the needs of advertisers) - everyone is distracted most of the time - which actually prevents us from getting things done, the complete opposite of what technology was intended to do!

Secondly, the attention economy thrives on a 'sensationalise, bate and entertain' logic and as a result the media is now is now more than ever biased in favour of that which is sensationalist and entertaining. People like Donald Trump do well in this environment because they are good at grabbing attention with their simplistic, emotional and extremist views - that which is rational is less likely to get attention than that which is impulsive.

Finally, and related to the above point, this may be changing how we view politics - we see it in increasingly polarised terms - because the only thing which grabs our attention at a similar level of Donald Trump is a similarly extreme reaction, in the form of Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn for example.
What are the solutions to avoid getting addicted in the attention economy?
Some of the big names who created the technologies of the attention economy are actually ducking out of it themselves - having turned off their social media updates, or even uninstalled most of the apps from their hardware.
Find out More
If you're interested in Tristan Harris' initiative to make digital technologies less addictive - you might like to check out his Time Well Spent Website, and his TED talk below...
Related A-Level Sociology Debates
As I see it this material fits in to at least two places on the A-level sociology syllabus:

This material seems to be coming from the structuralist side of sociology - that society shapes (or at least frames) social action. See this post: 'Sociological perspectives: the basics' for an overview of structure versus action approaches in sociology.

There's also some clear relevance to the increasing power of Transnational Corporations: this material certainly suggests that transnational technology companies wield enormous power to shape people's actions.

If you study the media option for A level paper 2, no doubt it's even more relevant!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Technology Companies Manipulate our Behaviour

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Design features such as likes, swipes, notifications and autoplays make being on-line more addictive, less autonomous, and cause pyschological and social harm, at least according to this recent Guardian Article by Paul Lewis: Our minds can be hijacked: the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia'.

# data[].attributes.headline
How much revenue do tech giants like Amazon and Apple make per minute

# data[].attributes.subject
How much revenue do tech giants like Amazon and Apple make per minute

# data[].attributes.body
Guillem
Main idea
Even though the growth of Covid has affected most of the companies in the world. The tech giants had remained the same or even better in revenue making their profits increase greatly and surpassing records.

Arguments
-The profit that each company gained in a quarter of the year increased thanks to the obligation of buying online because of the pandemic.
-Elon Musk gain the title of reachest person in the world thanks to the revenues gained in January 2020 because of the pandemic effect in the economy.

Dialog
Our feeling about these is that the world will get more isolated with time passing making tech companies become wealthier and more famous.

Summary
Tech companies got richer within the time that covid was around the world. Making them greater at the charts of the world's richest companies and concluding that tech businesses are becoming the leaders of commerce and economical matters leaving others to get lower on sales and purchases making them useless in the future as a possible occurrence.

APA
Tom, H. (2021, May 1). How much revenue do tech giants like Amazon and Apple make per minute. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/01/how-much-revenue-tech-giants-like-amazon-and-apple-make-per-minute.html

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Big Tech had a big year in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic did not stop the seven biggest tech companies from growing in value by $3.4 trillion in total last year.

Tech giants like Amazon and Apple posted record revenues in recent months, with both companies topping $100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in the final quarter of 2020.

In fact, in Amazon's case, the e-commerce behemoth pulled in more than $830,000 in revenue per minute in its most recent quarter.

CNBC Make It looked at the most recent quarterly earnings reports that seven of the biggest brands in tech (Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Facebook, Tesla and Netflix) filed with the SEC in recent weeks, and broke down how much revenue they each made for every minute of the first three months of 2021. (There were 90 days, and 129,600 minutes, in the first quarter of 2021.)

1. Amazon: $837,330.25 revenue per minute in 2021's first quarter

2. Apple: $691,234.57 per minute

3. Alphabet: $426,805.56 per minute

4. Microsoft: $321,805.56 per minute

5. Facebook: $201,936.73 per minute

6. Tesla: $80,162.04 per minute

7. Netflix: $55,270.06 per minute

The companies brought in an average of $373,606 per minute, which is actually less than the same seven companies averaged in the previous quarter ($416,768 in revenue per minute, as business data website Visual Capitalist pointed out in a March graphic). Both Apple and Amazon posted record revenues in their final quarters of 2020, helping to boost the overall average, with Amazon pulling in over $950,000 in revenue per minute in that quarter.

In 2021's first quarter, Amazon led the pack by pulling in more than $108.5 billion in revenue. That breaks down to $837,330 per minute during that three-month period.

Amazon topped $100 billion in revenue for the second quarter in a row. Amazon is coming off a blockbuster year, as the pandemic forced people to do even more of their shopping online. Founder Jeff Bezos (who announced he's stepping down as Amazon CEO during the company's last quarterly earnings reveal) has even seen his personal net worth top $200 billion.

Apple followed Amazon in the breakdown of revenue-per-minute, pulling in $691,234 every minute of the first quarter of 2021. The company posted revenue of $89.6 billion for that quarter, with iPhone sales that grew by 65.5% from the same period a year earlier.

Apple also has the largest market value of any company in the world, at more than $2.2 trillion, as of Friday. Amazon has a market value of $1.76 trillion.

Meanwhile, Google's parent company, Alphabet, which has a market value of about $1.6 trillion, pulled in $426,805 per minute, based on its most recent quarterly results. The company reported total revenue of $55.3 billion for the first quarter of 2021. Microsoft, with a market cap of $1.9 trillion, reported $41.7 billion in quarterly revenue this past week, which broke down to $321,805 in revenue per minute.

Facebook ($925 billion market value) pulled in $201,936 of revenue per minute and $26.2 billion in total revenue for the first quarter of the year. Tesla ($677 billion market value) was next on the list with $80,162 in revenue per minute, based on a quarterly revenue haul of $10.4 billion.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk temporarily overtook Bezos for the title of the world's wealthiest person in January, after a very successful 2020 saw the electric automaker's stock price soar as the company finally posted consistent quarterly profits. Musk currently has a net worth of $175 billion, second to Bezos' $202 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Finally, Netflix (with a market cap of $227 billion) came off a year of record revenues in 2020, but the streaming giant saw subscriber growth slow down in the first quarter of 2021. Still, Netflix pulled in $7.2 billion in the year's final quarter, which broke down to $55,270 in revenue per minute.
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How much revenue tech giants like Amazon and Apple make per minute

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Big Tech had a big year in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic did not stop the seven biggest tech companies from growing in value by $3.4 trillion in total last year. Tech giants like Amazon and Apple posted record revenues in recent months, with both companies topping $100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in the final quarter of 2020.

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How the tech giants make their billions ?

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How the tech giants make their billions ?

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Cesar
Main idea
Initially, you might think that the world is being dominated by technology giants. Indeed, it may seem like the world’s biggest technology companies have a lot in common, well not all is as you would think.

Arguments
-You Are The Customer And You Are The Data
-You Are The Product – It’s Your Data

Dialog
our feeling about this article is that technology is everywhere and you are the consumer for amazon or apple but also the product for social media, so they get constantly richer.

Summary
The Big Five Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet) have become established as some of the most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world, with founders such as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates hitting the top spot on the global billionaire list.

Most of the tech giants have millions if not billions of people using their platforms globally. These companies have created the scale and size of businesses that make it hard for others to compete. There are few if any companies now that could scale to the same size and offer the same breadth of products as Amazon.

Each of the big tech companies has one thing in common though. They all leverage user data to create personalised and tailored services. In fact, many handle our most sensitive data on a daily basis. At the same time, this data is a double-edged sword, as these same companies often find themselves in the crosshairs for mishandling personal information.

So while the tech giants may have many similarities, how they generate their billions can vary considerably.

Some are marketing products to you, while others are marketing you as the product.

Fox, G. (2020, May 1). How The Tech Giants Make Their Billions. GARY FOX. https://www.garyfox.co/how-tech-giants-make-billions/

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Initially, you might think that the world is being dominated by technology giants. Indeed, it may seem like the world's biggest technology companies have a lot in common, well not all is as you would think.

The Big Five Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet) have become established as some of the most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world, with founders such as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates hitting the top spot on the global billionaire list.

Most of the tech giants have millions if not billions of people using their platforms globally. These companies have created the scale and size of businesses that make it hard for others to compete. There are few if any companies now that could scale to the same size and offer the same breadth of products as Amazon.

Each of the big tech companies has one thing in common though. They all leverage user data to create personalised and tailored services. In fact, many handle our most sensitive data on a daily basis. At the same time, this data is a double-edged sword, as these same companies often find themselves in the crosshairs for mishandling personal information.

Finally, all of these companies have a similar origin story: they were founded or incubated on the fertile digital grounds of the West Coast of the USA. The company that has the weakest claim to such origins would be Facebook, but even it has been based in Silicon Valley since June 2004.

The Size Of The Tech Giants

For all of their commonalities, it seems that there is less of a mold for how these tech giants end up generating cashflow.

To start with let's do a roundup of their financials. The following data comes from the 2018 10-K reports filed last year.

Together, the Big Five tech giants together account for a staggering turnover of over $800 billion of revenue in 2018. This would put them among the world's 20 largest countries in terms of GDP. More precisely, they would just be ahead of Saudi Arabia ($684 billion GDP) in terms of size.

Meanwhile, they generated a total of $139 billion of net income for their shareholders, at a 17.3% profit margin.

How Big Tech Makes Money

Let's dig deeper, and see the differences in how these companies generate their revenue.

You are the Customer and You Are The Data

In the broadest sense, three of the tech giants make money in the same way: you pay them money, and they give you a product or service.

Apple (Revenue in 2018: $265.6 billion)

Apple generates a staggering 62.8% of its revenue from the iPhone

The iPad and Mac are good for 7.1% and 9.6% of revenues, respectively

All other products and services - including Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, Apple Pay, AppleCare, etc. - combine to just 20.6% of revenues

Amazon (Revenue in 2018: $232.9 billion)

Amazon gets the most from its online stores (52.8%) as well as third-party seller services (18.4%)

Amazon's fastest-growing segment is offline sales in physical stores

Offline sales generate $17.2 billion in current revenue, growing 197% year-over-year

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is well-known for being Amazon's most profitable segment, and it counts for 11.0% of revenue

Amazon's "Other" segment is also rising fast - it mainly includes ad sales

Microsoft (Revenue in 2018: $110.4 billion)

Microsoft has the most diversified revenue of any of the tech giants

This is part of the reason it currently has the largest market capitalization ($901 billion) of the Big Five

Microsoft has eight different segments that generate ~5% or more of revenue

The biggest three are "Office products and cloud services" (25.7%), "Server products and cloud services" (23.7%), and Windows (17.7%)

The remaining tech giants charge you nothing as a consumer, so how are they worth so much?

You are the Product - It's Your Data

Both Alphabet and Facebook generate billions of dollars of revenue, but they make this money from advertising. Each time you update your profile on Facebook or search on Google, they use this information to target ads. These platforms allow advertisers to target you at scale with incredible precision, which is why they now dominate the online ad industry.

Here's how their revenues break down:

Alphabet (Revenue in 2018: $136.8 billion)

Despite having a wider umbrella name, ad revenue (via Google, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Ads, etc.) still drives 85% of revenue for the company

Other Google products and services, like Google Play or the Google Pixel phone, help to generate 14.5% of total revenue

Other Bets count to 0.4% of revenue - these are Alphabet's moonshot attempts to find the "next Google" for its shareholders

Facebook (Revenue in 2018: $55.8 billion)

Facebook generates almost all revenue (98.5%) from ads

Meanwhile, 1.5% comes from payments and other fees

Despite Facebook being a free service for users, the company generated more revenue per user than Netflix, which charges for its service

In 2018 Q4, for example, Facebook made $35 per user. Netflix made $30.

So while the tech giants may have many similarities, how they generate their billions can vary considerably.

Some are marketing products to you, while others are marketing you as the product.

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Initially, you might think that the world is being dominated by technology giants. Indeed, it may seem like the world's biggest technology companies have a lot in common, well not all is as you would think.

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Joaquina
Main idea
5 of the richest tech companies make over 800 billion dollars per year. That is more money than Saudi Arabia revenue

Arguments
-This is due to advertising
-We make the money of these companies

Dialog:
We feel that this sort of media manipulates us in order to buy  things to make rich people richer

Summary:
At a glance, it may seem like the world’s biggest technology companies have a lot in common.

For starters, all five of the Big Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet) have emerged as some of the most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world, with founders such as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates sitting atop the global billionaire list.

APA: Desjardins, J. (2021, June 15). How the Tech Giants Make Their Billions. Visual Capitalist. Retrieved from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-tech-giants-make-billions/

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How the Tech Giants Make Their Billions

At a glance, it may seem like the world's biggest technology companies have a lot in common.

For starters, all five of the Big Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet) have emerged as some of the most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world, with founders such as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates sitting atop the global billionaire list.

These tech giants also have a consumer-facing aspect to their business that is front and center. With billions of people using their platforms globally, these companies leverage user data to tighten their grip even more on market share. At the same time, this data is a double-edged sword, as these same companies often find themselves in the crosshairs for mishandling personal information.

Finally, all of these companies have a similar origin story: they were founded or incubated on the fertile digital grounds of the West Coast. The company that has the weakest claim to such origins would be Facebook, but even it has been based in Silicon Valley since June 2004.

Sizing Up the Tech Giants

For all of their commonalities, it seems that there is less of a mold for how these tech giants end up generating cashflow.

But before we get to how Big Tech makes its money, let's start by looking at the financials at a higher level. The following data comes from the 2018 10-K reports filed last year.

Together, the Big Five tech giants combined for just over $800 billion of revenue in 2018, which would be among the world's 20 largest countries in terms of GDP. More precisely, they would just edge out Saudi Arabia ($684 billion GDP) in terms of size.

Meanwhile, they generated a total of $139 billion of net income for their shareholders, good for a 17.3% profit margin.

How Big Tech Makes Money

Let's dig deeper, and see the differences in how these companies generate their revenue.

You are the Customer

In the broadest sense, three of the tech giants make money in the same way: you pay them money, and they give you a product or service.

Apple (Revenue in 2018: $265.6 billion)

Apple generates a staggering 62.8% of its revenue from the iPhone

The iPad and Mac are good for 7.1% and 9.6% of revenues, respectively

All other products and services - including Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, Apple Pay, AppleCare, etc. - combine to just 20.6% of revenues

Amazon (Revenue in 2018: $232.9 billion)

Amazon gets the most from its online stores (52.8%) as well as third-party seller services (18.4%)

Amazon's fastest-growing segment is offline sales in physical stores

Offline sales generate $17.2 billion in current revenue, growing 197% year-over-year

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is well-known for being Amazon's most profitable segment, and it counts for 11.0% of revenue

Amazon's "Other" segment is also rising fast - it mainly includes ad sales

Microsoft (Revenue in 2018: $110.4 billion)

Microsoft has the most diversified revenue of any of the tech giants

This is part of the reason it currently has the largest market capitalization ($901 billion) of the Big Five

Microsoft has eight different segments that generate ~5% or more of revenue

The biggest three are "Office products and cloud services" (25.7%), "Server products and cloud services" (23.7%), and Windows (17.7%)

The remaining tech giants charge you nothing as a consumer, so how are they worth so much?

You are the Product

Both Alphabet and Facebook also generate billions of dollars of revenue, but they make this money from advertising. Their platforms allow advertisers to target you at scale with incredible precision, which is why they dominate the online ad industry.

Here's how their revenues break down:

Alphabet (Revenue in 2018: $136.8 billion)

Despite having a wider umbrella name, ad revenue (via Google, YouTube, Google Maps, Google Ads, etc.) still drives 85% of revenue for the company

Other Google products and services, like Google Play or the Google Pixel phone, help to generate 14.5% of total revenue

Other Bets count to 0.4% of revenue - these are Alphabet's moonshot attempts to find the "next Google" for its shareholders

Facebook (Revenue in 2018: $55.8 billion)

Facebook generates almost all revenue (98.5%) from ads

Meanwhile, 1.5% comes from payments and other fees

Despite Facebook being a free service for users, the company generated more revenue per user than Netflix, which charges for its service

In 2018 Q4, for example, Facebook made $35 per user. Netflix made $30.

So while the tech giants may have many similarities, how they generate their billions can vary considerably.

Some are marketing products to you, while others are marketing you as the product.

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Infographic: How the Tech Giants Make Their Billions

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At a glance, it may seem like the world's biggest technology companies have a lot in common. For starters, all five of the Big Tech companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet) have emerged as some of the most valuable publicly-traded companies in the world, with founders such as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates sitting atop the global billionaire list.