We are finally waking up to the fact that we aren’t merely “the product” of companies like Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL -2.20% Google. As one Silicon Valley investor put it, we are their fuel.
At least our personal data is: Every week, it seems, we are treated to fresh revelations of hacks, leaks and exploitation of our information, along with ever louder cries for regulation and consumer protection, in the U.S. and Europe.
What is less appreciated is the degree to which Apple Inc. AAPL -2.56% and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -3.20% —which must maintain a direct relationship with their paying customers—could also be affected, both for good and for ill. (Another tech giant, Microsoft Corp. , hasn’t played as big a role in the smartphone revolution and hasn’t seen similar growth, but it too must comply with forthcoming regulation.)
The past decade saw an explosion in revenue and value for these four companies sufficient to put them atop the global economy. But the laissez-faire environment in which they have operated is for the first time plausibly coming to an end.
Facebook Rises
Going public during a decade largely devoid of regulation, the data-hungry Facebook has seen revenues explode.
Annual revenue 2008-2017 (Facebook since 2011) and change from first year shown
.
$250
billion
200
Facebook began reporting revenue in 2011
150
100