The World's New Most Valuable Resource ... Data!

What is the #1 world commodity?  

Is it Oil?  Try to name a country that hasn't been reliant on it to survive.

OK, then what about water?

Nonetheless, arguably, a new commodity has taken over.  In our new digital era, the #1 commodity is data.  And countries (and businesses and people) are becoming even more reliant on it. 

Consequently, some of the new tech titans - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft - have an unprecedented amount of data (and power). 

 

via Statista

The new tech titans also make a massive amount of money.  According to the Economist, they collectively made over $25 billion in net profit in Q1 2017.

With those titans controlling so much of the industry, they're facing calls for them to be broken up, as Standard Oil or AT&T was. 

There are questions, though.  Is size, alone, an issue? Are these titans abusing their power?  Do we need new forms of antitrust laws (or consumer protection laws) to handle them?

At this point, most of these titans' sites are monetarily free to use for consumers ... But, does that mean that they don't require regulation?  Realize, the free sites are a way to attract users, and then to sell data and ads to companies marketing to them.

One thing is for sure ... Privacy is a rare commodity in a time of digital omniscience.