Tech firms dominate markets by capitalization despite modest revenue shares

Evidence

Finally, when considering the size and composition of the social quantification sector, we should also consider its economic impact. In terms of actual revenue, it is important not to overestimate the size of the social quantification sector in the wider economy. Oil and gas, financial services, automotive, and pharmaceuticals are in fact larger sectors than ICT. For instance, in 2016, oil conglomerate Saudi Aramco made 311 billion dollars in revenue, compared to Amazon’s 107 billion; Toyota made 237 billion compared to Google’s 89.5 billion; Apple posted a revenue of 234 billion, less than Walmart’s 482 billion; and Facebook’s 27.64 billion and Uber’s 6.5 billion of revenue are considerably less than Volkswagen’s 237 billion. But it is equally important not to underestimate the prominence of the ICT sector in terms of stock market capitalization and not to underrate the considerable growth in this sector: in the first quarter of 2008, the top four corporations in terms of market capitalization (the value of the shares of a corporation) were Exxon/Mobil (452 billion), Petro China (423 billion), General Electric (369 billion), and Gazprom (299 billion). A decade later, in the first quarter of 2018, they were Apple (851 billion), Alphabet/Google (717 billion), Microsoft (702 billion), and Amazon (700 billion). In that same year, Apple broke the 1 trillion record in capitalization for a brief period. … By itself, the social quantification sector might be less economically significant than others and certainly not as significant as mainstream opinion would lead us to believe. But it plays a key role in the overall structuring of the Cloud Empire and the shaping of the social world around it. Its smaller economic role is more than made up for by its enormous influence on data processing and business models within the wider social order built around data colonialism. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 205

Categorization

• XREF: This quantitative grounding for the data-colonialism rival frame gives hard numbers to compare against the attention-economy literature, which rarely supplies market-cap figures. — connects to: Big tech revenue lags older sectors but market capitalization has overtaken them. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 205; Share-price-oriented firms grow without investments in physical assets or employment — Gerald F. Davis & Suntae Kim, Financialization of the Economy, 72; Tech giants hold hundreds of billions in cash plus $1.6 trillion market capitalization. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1289 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Big tech revenue lags older sectors but market capitalization has overtaken them. #corroborates (1.00) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 205
• Share-price-oriented firms grow without investments in physical assets or employment #exemplifies (0.85) — Gerald F. Davis & Suntae Kim, Financialization of the Economy, 72
• Tech giants hold hundreds of billions in cash plus $1.6 trillion market capitalization. #corroborates (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1289
• Post-2008 low interest rates rerouted surplus capital into a tech boom #expands (0.80) — Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism, 74