Wealth extraction.
In reading about computer science and various companies, I have noticed that one concept is always lost sight of, which does not seem to be present in journalistic (and therefore, political) culture: the concept of extraction of wealth. Which is different from both “investment” and “trade”.
Let's take “Apple selling a cell phone”. Then Apple sells a cell phone to an Italian, who pays for it. In this case, we are in the world of "pure commerce". If I stand on the Italian customs border, I see $1,000 of cell phones passing from the USA to Italy, and then I see $1,000 in currency going to the USA. In this case it is about trade. The exchange, if we accept that the value coincides with the price, is completely fair.
Now let's assume that the Apple mobile needs a telephone infrastructure to work. And let's imagine that the government or a telco invests in the infrastructure. It is still trade, because in the last analysis the investment is internal to the country. If we stand at the customs border, we always see $1,000 going in, and $1,000 going out.
But if the phone starts transferring data to Apple, say, then I'm starting to see strange things on the edge. $1,000 came in as phone, $1,000 went out as phone payment, and now $100 goes out every year in data. But nothing comes in.
Um. Sure, you'll say that data isn't money, but you're also the same people who argue that data is the new oil.
Who says (to sound smart) that data is the new oil, would be willing to regulate the extraction of data from the country with measures similar to the extraction of oil from the country (mining license, taxes, customs, etc)?
In short, it is as if we went to a foreign country, built the wells, hired local labor, but then kept ALL the oil. In this case you would agree that we are extracting oil, i.e. wealth.
But there are also more subtle reasons. Let's try to find an example.
The American multinational ACME invests 10 billion in Italy to build a factory in Italy. He takes everything he needs with him from the USA, included in those 10 billion. He sets up a factory to process raw materials that come from abroad, and earns 1 billion every year, net of salary expenses, and all that.
After 20 years without hauntings, he's made $20 billion in total.
Is it wealth extraction? Depends.
- If ACME brings that $20 billion back to the US, yes. Placed at the customs border, we saw ten billion enter and twenty billion leave. Damn. It is definitely wealth extraction. We are at -10.
- If, on the other hand, those 20 billion are placed in a local bank, remaining the property of ACME SpA, the Italian branch, then it is a foreign investment. Sitting at customs, we saw ten billion enter. But we didn't see anything come out. We are at +10
From -10 we went to +10.
That said, we can ask what is worse than wealth extraction. Well, let's go with a classic example.
AP (ACME Petrolio Inc) arrives in Italy. He forces local companies, at their expense, to build wells for him. Then he forces other companies to build the tankers. Then he forces the people of the country to pay the sailors of the tankers. He doesn't invest a lira in that country. Then the oil is taken away.
What's your name? It's called "colonialism", right? Good. So let's see what's going on:
Facebook does not invest a lira. He forces the telcos to build him an adequate access network to the "Metaverse". Then it forces the telcos to keep the infrastructure up and running. Then it forces them to let data go all the way to Facebook's carrier segment. Then users pay gigabytes to send data to facebook.
It is called, precisely, colonialism.
The reason these OTT companies are so big and rich is just that: digital colonialism.
I hope that is clearer. Because if it's still not clear to you, to use colonial parlance, the problem is that having an alarm clock around your neck and a bone in your nose, you wouldn't do anything with the data, since they wouldn't be resources for you.
That is, it is the even more vicious version of the extraction of wealth, or rather colonialism. No longer a situation in which the foreigner takes more than he invests, but the situation in which the foreigner takes but does not invest.
What value are we talking about? About $100, per user, per year. Plus the infrastructure to pick it up, which they charge.
And if someone thinks to confuse you by saying that the infrastructure is a value and remains in place, try to imagine that Facebook has the data sent by post, on a flash drive. And now ask yourself who pays the stamp: Facebook, or you?