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In Brown's view, although Marx reminds us that competition is the foundation of capitalist development, highly developed digital capitalism has gradually shifted its focus to market possession and monopoly, rather than further improving innovation capabilities. Avoiding or even avoiding competition has become a trend for technology giants. This logic of "rent is better than production" has triggered various current controversies about platform power. How did technology giants evolve into "feudal lords" in the new era? The following content is excerpted from "Technological Feudalism" with the permission of the publisher, and the subheadings are added by the excerpt editor.

"Technological Feudalism", written by Cedric Durand [France], published by China Renmin University Press, July 2024.

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The “Big Other” that brings data to life

The data in cyberspace is like a "digital gold mine", but the mining of these gold mines is not unlimited, and the original data is absolutely scarce. The acquisition of original data, especially high-quality data streams, requires huge investment. What really makes these data "alive" is the "big other" - those algorithms and services that can process and utilize these data. For example, Google is like a super data processor. It collects information (data streams) from all over the world, and then uses this information to provide search, advertising and other services. This is the "Google model". In this process, the places where data are extracted become strategic locations. Whoever controls these places will have the initiative in information.