Consider this. For every $1 spent on advertising on the planet 20 cents of it goes to Google. Despite Google not owning any TV channels, billboards along highways or radio stations, just by its sheer size and the monopoly it has on online advertising it captures 20% of all advertising money spent across the globe. If you don’t believe me – read this.
Very few of us realise how vast and powerful Google is as an organisation. With just the liquid assets Google holds; basically the cash it has in the bank right now, Google could buy Goldman Sachs, outright. That doesn’t take into consideration all the assets it has tied up in land, machinery, hardware, IP etc. In fact, Google could by Goldman Sachs a few times over if it wanted to.
Facebook is also mind-bogglingly powerful. Each month over 2 billion people go onto Facebook. Facebook can, if it wanted to, send 2 billion people a message stating that killing your neighbour is now legal. If only 1% of people acted on this, 20 million people would think it is perfectly OK to go out and kill you next door neighbour. That is almost the entire population of Australia. New Zealand should be more worried.
And we believe that our politicians are in a position to control and regulate these behemoths. We delude ourselves into believing that our governments can counterbalance and limit the power these companies have. The truth is they can’t. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple are so wealthy, so embedded in our lives and so broadly entrenched across the globe that if they wanted to they could cripple economies, create protests on a massive scale or overthrow governments.
If Amazon or Google decided not to agree to new laws or regulations in a country, let’s say Canada. What recourse would the Canadian government have? It could ban the companies from doing business within their borders. Regulators could block or fine them. However, if Amazon or Google so desired they could ignore the Canadian government and there wouldn’t be much that the friendly Canadians could do about it.
Modern governments aren’t set up to manage tech behemoths.
The truth is we are living with Clark Kent. He looks like a good guy and we like to believe that he doesn’t have a choice when it comes to following the rules, just like us. However, he’s Superman, he can do whatever he wants – literally, nobody can stop him. We just haven’t faced up to this truth.
The irony is, all these giant multi-nationals are all powerful. But that power is bestowed on them by us. The power we have in large groups is the power to focus chaos on very specific organisations. If we all stopped using Google as a browser, and I mean all of us – for the period of a week, the giant would feel it. If we all abandoned Facebook (and I think we should) there would be no more Facebook. And if we all stopped spending money on Amazon for a few days Jeff Bezos wouldn’t like it.
Going back to the Superman analogy. Chaos is the kryptonite these organisations fear. And large mobilised groups who are focused and determined can build and destroy almost anything.
Power is fluid – and it tends to flow to the larger number of people who are better organised and have less to lose.