It's been a long time since I last posted an article in this blog. Things like Big Data Analytics, Real-time Detection of customer behaviour, M2M communication, smart-home, VoIP, and so forth, have been thoroughly analyzed, discussed and presented by experts all over the word. I felt like I had no value to add in all these.
What I'd really like to share, though, is an idea a very good friend of mine talked about few weeks ago. We were discussing about all large information companies (like Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram) and the services they provide, and trying to work out the value chain and the business model behind their strategy. Naturally, I do not claim that what I intend to hereby quote is true or valid, but still remains a challenging idea.
So what my friend shared with me, is that the driving force behind those companies strategy to offer innovative services to the mass customers for free, is the fact that me, you, all of us, we are not really the customers; on the contrary we are merely the products.
The use of the services generates enormous amounts of information. The core technology of the companies in question has to do with information processing, therefore based upon this information those companies actually profit.
It's a scary thought to realize that you are just a product; It's even scarier to think that all your data exist in the cloud and that you don't actually have the total control over it.
Yet, these pioneers empower us with the use of high-tech services such as cloud storage, Navigation Maps, Translation services, Web Stores, Document management, email, etc. Services, that eventually we cannot imagine living without, which is equally scary.
Finally, it is also spooky to realize that our imagination is just not enough for us to foresee what will happen and how things will evolve in the next few years, whatsoever.
What I'd really like to share, though, is an idea a very good friend of mine talked about few weeks ago. We were discussing about all large information companies (like Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram) and the services they provide, and trying to work out the value chain and the business model behind their strategy. Naturally, I do not claim that what I intend to hereby quote is true or valid, but still remains a challenging idea.
So what my friend shared with me, is that the driving force behind those companies strategy to offer innovative services to the mass customers for free, is the fact that me, you, all of us, we are not really the customers; on the contrary we are merely the products.
The use of the services generates enormous amounts of information. The core technology of the companies in question has to do with information processing, therefore based upon this information those companies actually profit.
It's a scary thought to realize that you are just a product; It's even scarier to think that all your data exist in the cloud and that you don't actually have the total control over it.
Yet, these pioneers empower us with the use of high-tech services such as cloud storage, Navigation Maps, Translation services, Web Stores, Document management, email, etc. Services, that eventually we cannot imagine living without, which is equally scary.
Finally, it is also spooky to realize that our imagination is just not enough for us to foresee what will happen and how things will evolve in the next few years, whatsoever.
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