Toxic Innovation in the Digital Economy

Silicon Valley’s genius combined with limited regulation promised a new age of technological innovation in which entrepreneurs would fuel unprecedented job growth, improve overall well-being, and address pressing issues. Instead, the leading tech companies design their sprawling ecosystems to extract value (often at the expense of individuals and business users), while crushing entrepreneurs that pose a threat. As a result, we get less disruptive innovation that actually benefits us and more innovations that surpass the dreams of yesteryears’ autocracies. This essay highlights several important themes from our new book, How Big-Tech Barons Smash Innovation and How to Strike Back which examines and debunks the self-serving ideological platter that the Tech Barons serve, in depicting themselves as the engines of innovation in the digital economy.

By Ariel Ezrachi & Maurice E. Stucke^[1]

The digital platform economy delivers on many fronts, offering us new products, technologies, and means to communicate, trade, and explore. And one of the celebrated aspects of the digital economy is the ensuing innovation. And even more so when speaking about the platform economy, where platforms, like coral reefs, attract innovators, disruptors, and new businesses and offer them unparalleled access to markets and users.

Indeed, there is little doubt as to the significant investments in research and development by leading tech firms, such as Google