Global data empires remain nationally rooted despite their worldwide extractive reach

Evidence

While enjoying global reach, most data empires are concentrated in the United States and China; other countries may contribute a few notable competitors (Spain’s travel website ODIGEO and Brazil’s e-commerce platform B2W, for example), but their international reach is much more limited. According to 2017 figures, three out of the top four revenue-earning IT companies in the world were US based, and one was Chinese; four out of the top five “traditional” media companies were also US based. The extractive reach of these companies may be global (more so for US companies at the moment, with China close behind), but it is somewhat misleading to think of them as “transnational” corporations: most of their decision power, employment, capital expenditures, and profits are kept close to home. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 333

Categorization

• XREF: Corroborates Uneven and Combined Development critiques of ‘globalization’ narratives — connects to reading on platform nationalism (e.g. ‘Digital Empires’ books). — connects to: Data colonialism is not a Western-only project but operates globally and within societies — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 100; Industrial platforms extract data to cement monopolies over global manufacturing — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 62; Russia and India host domestic digital platforms competing with the US-based quantification sector — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 209

Broader Connections

• Data colonialism is not a Western-only project but operates globally and within societies #qualifies (0.75) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 100