Decent people lead Google, Facebook, and the other giants. They are very smart and hard-working. They are no more greedy than anyone else. However, corporate leaders in America put shareholders first. That does not always serve users and the public interest.
Seven trillion dollars of corporate power is unprecedented in my lifetime. These five companies are worth over three times as much as the top twenty-eight telcos across the world (below.) I believe each is now spending over $100 million/year for influence.
Consider a thought experiment. Would the world be better off if the giants were broken into smaller parts, say worth up to $500 billion?
Capitalism works best with strong competition. If Instagram, Whatsapp, and Facebook how to contend with each other, they would be more innovative. One might even offer a service that didn't abuse your privacy.
Google is using its 95% browser share to try to dominate the payment market in India. Amazon is cross-subsidizing e-commerce with billions from the incredibly profitable Amazon cloud, AWS. Apple is ripping off everyone with the unreasonable 30% takeoff of everything in the Apple store.
All five companies first grew because they do what they do incredibly well. But their size allows them to dominate in so many ways.
Think about this. Would the world be a better place with ordinary corporate giants or these leviathans?
Here's the top 28 world phone and cable companies
I haven't translate euros and pounds into dollars. Jio and Japan Telecom figures are buried in the numbers of their parent companies. That would add $150-200 billion to the total..