When looking through news stories and other posts about the tech industry, one might occasionally have flashbacks to 2007 with headlines of, “Too Big to Fail” being tossed about.
Rather than referring to banks, however, these headlines are talking about major tech companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and others.
While most people will dismiss the headlines as being sensationalist, it might not be a bad idea to take a step back and look at the situation. People from both sides of the political spectrum are lambasting tech giants for a variety of things including censorship, fake news, monopolistic practices, and much much more.
Of course, we aren’t likely to see any real move to break up or dismantle any of these major corporations anytime soon, but it isn’t inconceivable to see a time when this could happen. A recent survey from USA Today found that 52% of people think ‘technology companies are getting too influential in everyday Americans’ lives’ and that it is a bad thing.
At some point, it is possible that those with political power will see the major tech companies as a threat (we’ve already seen how social media can have a strong influence on elections) and go after them.
The results of the survey mentioned above indicate that a lot of people might support this type of action.
As marketers, it is important to always keep an eye on what may occur in the future, even if somewhat unlikely. What would happen if Facebook and Google were broken up into multiple small companies. It would certainly have a major impact on how advertising is handled. This isn’t just paid ads either. Companies spend millions putting organic content out there to interact with their customers. Rather than having a few places to do this, it may be necessary to post on dozens, or even hundreds, of sites.
While it is all theory for now, it isn’t hard to imagine a future where major tech companies get broken up, and it will have a massive impact on the marketing industry.
