It's not a breakup - Big Tech's inevitable restructuring will echo the refrain often attributed to Classical Greek Philosopher Aristotle, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
In Jon Stokes' piece, The Billion User Table, Stokes prescribes an antidote to Big Tech's ever-expansive influence: decentralization, with blockchain-supported user databases the new currency (Source: https://1729.com/the-billion-user-table/ ):
I. Big Tech's Currency: The User Table
The rise of bite-sized content-hosting platforms demonstrates user patience is at an all-time low, while competition for these users is at an all-time high. Therefore, large tech platforms are always ready with a new and improved algorithm to capture users' ever-fleeting attention.
Likewise, in the wake of potential regulation legislation, Big Tech can leverage restructuring to its advantage, as Stokes holds. Such restructuring could include dissolving a parent company into separate holdings - say, A and B - each bargaining for cross-platform users. Theoretically, A could enable logins for B's users and vice versa; such exchange would render the user table the new cross-platform currency.
II. This Currency's Leverage
Each platform's proprietary user data hosts via API. In this decentralized system, node-to-node network sharing grants access to each publicly available API. For example, if A publicizes its API, B can draw from it for inspiration - ideally not becoming dependent, should A revoke this publicization.
Moreover, API access can be granted and revoked on a whim, and ultimately, not all platforms will host a publicly available API. With this in mind, just as user tables are Big Tech's new currency, so too is each API a new bargaining chip in cross-platform collaboration. Reasonably, we can expect this collaboration to involve some form of symbiotic relationships benefiting the vested interest of each platform.
III. User Table Exchange: Big Tech's Digital Barter
The kingpin of the crypto world, Bitcoin's code is open-source, which is easily and immediately replicable, unlike its network effect - its prominence, recognition, user following, and a vibrant 12+ year history. Exemplifying on-chain data - this open-source code anyone can tinker with has provided for a slew of alternative coins (altcoins) geared toward many communities' interests.
Similarly, the rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum Network showcases the existing demand for on-chain data. Building off these current trends and their entrepreneurial precursors, we can expect the issuance of on-chain certifications promising some form of innovative utility, similar to the online skills courses offered by individuals of today. Furthermore, we can expect each network effect to scale proportionally to each issuer's respective digital reputation.
IV. Conclusions
Overall, Stokes is wholly accurate in this assessment - decentralization will not dissolve but rather reshuffle Big Tech and the user experience on digital platforms as we know it. Nearly three decades since the internet changed the modern world, utility-focused decentralization is changing the internet, redistributing user and platform leverage to a more even, competitive spread.
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