The big question in my mind is the sustainability of the arbitrage models which underpin pretty much every internet business plan. Essentially we have two markets: one where everybody consumes but pays in metadata and another where everybody consumes aggregated analytics but pays in cash. An internet business is the arbitrageur who takes advantage of the inability of each market to price the other. History shows that arbitrage markets tend not be stable as information begins to leak across markets. Therefore what would blow the internet up is if consumers could become wiser about what they are giving up and advertisers would become wiser about aggregating consumer data. I imagine a system where each individual would allow bids on their consumption and a market mechanism where bidders competed for that data. This of course depends on users taking control and ownership of their own data. What might help is the realization of what mass state surveillance can do and the realization that internet giants have more information about us than the government could ever hope to possess. It would create a new era which will have political dimensions. I imagine we’ll need an internet citizen’s bill of rights or some such movement which will reset expectations. Economically, could bode well for those who position themselves as protectors of the individuals and be a crisis for those who take advantage of consumer ignorance.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 13:40:09 +0000
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