Digital Exhaust: What Everyone Should Know About Big Data, Digitization and Digitally Driven Innovation

2. Big Data and the Battle for Control of the Consumer Internet

Key Chapter Points

• The development of the PC and mobile phone democratized technology and shifted the focus of information technology investment and power away from business and toward the consumer.

• Consumer demand led to a rapid expansion of the Internet and huge improvements in data handling and storage.

• A handful of Internet-based companies have become highly valued on world markets based on their ability to cater to this consumer market and, particularly, to capture vast amounts of consumer data.

• Cash rich, these Internet tech companies are now vying for control over as many Internet channels—from search and messaging to streaming video, TV, and cloud storage—as possible. ...