We are apparently living in an unprecedented time, although of course we aren’t; there have been plagues before this one. The only difference is that we are living through this is in an age of technology.
We know who the global tech giants are:They are Google, Facebook and Apple, and they all need to build their revenue. Amazon is excluded from the list, because it has already seen a massive growth in traffic and purchases, as consumers confined to their homes need to have stuff delivered.
One way in which the three tech giants could pursue rapid growth is by entering the financial services sector, something they have dipped their toes into, but have never embraced wholeheartedly. However, they face a challenge, and as Billy Bambrough, one of the expert cryptocurrency analysts I follow writes, while Google et al have been waiting around, “bitcoin has gained ground.”
What are Google and Facebook’s weak points?
As Bambrough says, these two companies have relied on ad revenue, but he believes that this is going to be squeezed hard by regulators in the post-virus world. In an earlier article, he wrote that the world will likely be looking for alternatives, and quotes the CEO of the blockchain-based privacy browser Brave, who believes Google “is going to be taken apart over coming years.”
Apple loses its grip
Apple has seen sales of its big money maker, the iPhone, decline. The reason being that less expensive phones have improved in quality, and improvements to the iPhone have not proved to be enough to really enthuse the consumer. Add to this the economic effects of the coming global recession and it is easy to see that those who might once have splashed out nearly $1000 on a new iPhne, may opt, indeed will have to opt, for cheaper models that effectively do the same job.
Google is apparently looking into launching a smart debit card, and Apple has already debuted a credit card, while Facebook is still moving ahead with its Libra stablecoin project that caused such a stir last year. It hoped to displace bitcoin as a leading cryptocurrency, but has clearly been foiled in its efforts.
Bitcoin offers stability
Meanwhile bitcoin, which has no tech company, government or central bank behind it lives on. And as Bambrough points out, it doesn’t even have an advertising budget, never mind a CEO. As he says, “Bitcoin, maintained by an evolving and decentralized network and beholden only to the mathematical principles that underpin it, is stability without authority.”
Google et al by contrast are deeply centralised, and so will any financial products they unleash on the market. They will never get away from that, whereas bitcoin continues to represent the antithesis of Silicon Valley capitalism. That’s why the big tech companies main option now is to kill it! But who will do it?