The big five divide the data market without needing formal coordination.

Evidence

What is unique about these big five monopoly-monopsony hybrids is that they have carved out the social quantification space among themselves under an informal Pax Britannica–type of noncompetitive agreement. Yes, Microsoft spends about 5 billion a year keeping up with Google Search, and Apple spends about 1 billion45 competing only with Google Maps (just as Google tried unsuccessfully to launch Google+, an alternative to Facebook). But what this really means is that there are no other corporations out there with the resources to compete at the same scale in this sector. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 193

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader ‘data colonialism’ frame being assessed against attention/surveillance schools — the informal Pax Britannica over social quantification is a structural claim a rival-school reader must evaluate. — connects to: The Big Five carve up the data economy under informal noncompetition that blocks rivals; Monopoly practices protect data supply routes rather than raising prices — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 419; Platform power rests on structural influence over data, not revenue size. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 206

Broader Connections

• The Big Five carve up the data economy under informal noncompetition that blocks rivals #expands (0.95)
• Platform power rests on structural influence over data, not revenue size. #expands (0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 206
• Monopoly practices protect data supply routes rather than raising prices #qualifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 419