Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet have a cumulative market capitalization of $3000 trillion. That's more than the UK's GDP (2800 trillion), feeding a nation of over 60 million people. The Frightful Five, all together, barely feeds half a million people. So much is the number of paychecks dished out does all together. An astounding imbalance, it is not clear whether due to the disproportionate evaluation of the FAAMA or due to the small social impact of this immense wealth. It's not that the Frightful Five are evil or hateful, far from it, they're also very charming so much so that each of us maintains an important relationship with each of them.
All the more progressive causes are an integral part of the FAAMA's code of ethics and social and public behavior. It is no coincidence that some of their bosses are on Trump's and the alt-right's blacklist. Mark Zuckerberg launches political manifestos that seem to come from the most liberal of think tanks. Along with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, he is one of the most frequently circulated names as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2020. Zuckerberg-Sandberg is a global political ticket of immense appeal.
Tim Cook, along with Bill Gates, was considered by Clinton as a candidate for vice president. Jobs' successor as head of Apple was the first Fortune 500 CEO to step out. Jeff Bezos together with his wife MacKenzie finances the associations that fight for the civil rights of the LGBTQ and Bezos is also the owner of the "Washington Post" Trump's fiercest watchdog who swore it to him.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two founders of Google, come from a Montessori background and all the most daring, futuristic and craziest causes in the world come into their field of interest. Satya Nadella is today one of the most admired managers to the point of being able to make Microsoft forget the Luciferian reputation. For Steve Ballmer's forceful and pugilistic leadership style, Nadella has replaced a meditative and inclusive leadership that hints at the possible enormous contribution of Indian culture to improving the human face of capitalism.
The scary five remain scary though. Not so much in itself; as much for the power they have accumulated and for the control they are assuming over many aspects of the life and daily activity of the inhabitants of the planet. Faced with this power, which is undoubtedly exercised in a soft and disguised way, one might wonder: can we get rid of the frightening five, or at least some of them? Perhaps if the individual consumer begins to free himself, then it will be easier to achieve collective liberation. The New York Times tech critic, Farhad Manjoo, tried his hand at this exercise and here's how he tells us about his liberating journey. And in the end only one remained. Who? Read to know. The translation from English is by Ilaria Amurri.
JUST THE FINGERS OF ONE HAND
A few weeks ago I bought a new TV. After the procedure, I realized an incredible thing. In navigating my way through the tiniest details surrounding this single business transaction (deciding what to buy, what accessories I needed, how and where to install them, and what brand) I had dealt with only one ubiquitous company: Amazon.
It wasn't just about the TV. When I combined other recently purchased household items, I found that nearly 2016 percent of my home purchases went through the Seattle-based company in 10, far more than any other company my family has ever dealt with. What's more, with its Echoes, Fire TV devices, audiobooks, movies, and TV shows, Amazon has become more than just a store for my family. He is my confessor, keeps my lists, gives food and culture, entertains, educates and looks after my children.
It may seem like I'm exaggerating, but what do you think? I suspect that if you take a close look at your own life, there's a good chance another tech company has the same role Amazon has in mine, that of warden of a very comfortable prison. It is the most obvious and underappreciated phenomenon of capitalism in the internet age: all of us, without distinction, are at the mercy of a handful of American technology companies that currently dominate practically the entire global economy. Of course I'm talking about my old friends, the "Frightening Five": Facebook, Amazon, Apple, , Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
THE WEIGHT OF THE FIVE IN PEOPLE'S EVERYDAY LIFE
They are among the most publicly traded companies in the world, combined are worth trillions (Apple's capitalization hit $850 billion this week, it was the first public company to reach this figure and perhaps the others are not far behind) and, although Silicon Valley portrayed as the murky sea of disruption, these five companies have only gotten richer and more powerful over time.
Their growth has given rise to broader regulation and increased antitrust action. Furthermore, there is growing concern at the lesser influence they have not on the economy, but on culture and information (for example, the fear that Facebook could affect democracies), as well as the implicit threat they pose to government authorities of all the world.
These arguments are all very good, but they are also rather cold and abstract. A good way to quantify the power of these five companies would be to look at them on a microscopic, rather than a macroscopic level, to understand the role of each in our daily lives and the particular hold that each of them exerts on our psyche.
So last week I came up with a game: If an evil, technophobic king forced you to drop all five "terribles," in what order would you drop them, and how much would your life suffer? To make your decision easier, take a moment to see how I answered this quiz.
AND IN THE END THERE IS ONE
In facing this difficult experiment, I realized that discarding the first two giants was easy enough, but then the choice became more and more difficult. Facebook was the first one I deleted. Personally, I tend to socialize online using Twitter, Apple's messenger and the office application Slack, so the loss of Mark Zuckerberg's popular service (and its subsidiaries, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger) would not be so bad.
The second was Microsoft, which I found a little harder to leave. I don't normally use Windows, but the Word word processor is an essential tool for me and I would really hate to do without it.
In third place, with great regret, Apple. There's nothing I use more often than my iPhone, followed closely by the MacBook and the 5K iMac, possibly the best computer I've ever owned. Leaving Apple would lead to profound and very annoying changes in my life, including having to deal with the bad Samsung software. However I could do it, even if reluctantly.
It's when you get to the last two that life really changes. It is at this point that one realizes how deeply the “scary five” has crept into our lives and how we have become addicted to everything.
In fourth place I put Google. I just can't imagine doing without it. Without the best search engine in the world my job would become almost impossible. Without YouTube it would become much less interesting. Without all that Google can do (Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Translate, Google Photos and the Android operating system, which I would need after discarding Apple) I would be confined to a sad and obsolete life, say in 1992.
THE SURVIVOR IS: AMAZON!
Finally, here we come to the queen of my kingdom. I've been shopping on Amazon pretty much since it appeared on the net in the 90s (I was a curious student, I liked to experiment). Since then, year after year, as my life became more and more hectic and filled with responsibility (in other words, as I turned into a typical dad), Amazon has taken on an increasingly important role for me.
When my children were born, it became our go-to hypermarket for diapers and other baby stuff. Then he started offering a series of services designed to minimize the customer's decision-making activity: now toilet paper, kitchen paper and much more arrive at my home on time, I don't even have to think about it. Then she turned to entertainment, hooking me even more: I was already buying packaged goods, so why not buy films and television programs too?
A few years ago I thought that was the best. Then came Echo, the voice assistant who communicates through a person called Alexa and which has infected my family like a pleasant virus.
Echo has the power to be appreciated in the most everyday moments. I redid the electrical system to be able to control the lights with Alexa. I changed the type of coffee I buy for Alexa to reorder. This week, when Amazon announced a new version of the Echo, with a touchscreen and video calling function, I felt a new thrill of novelty. As I see it now, Amazon has a good chance of becoming my pet brain, a kind of ethereal servant who runs the business for me.
Which brings me back to the new TV. Did you know that Amazon now not only sells goods, but also home delivery services? If you buy a TV they will offer you a wall mount and if you buy one they will offer to send someone to your house to mount it for an incredibly reasonable price. What once would have required several rounds of shops, a van, various tools, a few friends and many hours can now be done in just a few clicks.
One evening, three days after I ordered the TV, the Amazon rep came to my house and fixed everything while I was cooking. If the prospect makes you pale, the reaction is the right one. I fell into the convenience trap and you are right to laugh at me and also to imagine dystopian scenarios, a future where many others do what I do, where a large percentage of business transactions go through a single online store. Of course you can do without it, you can use Target, you can survive without becoming a regular customer of Amazon.
Not me for now. But if it's not Amazon for you, it will be one of the other five or it probably already is. It's too late to escape. Hand! It's never too late to escape.
