Two and a half centuries ago, the American colonies launched a violent protest against British rule, triggered by parliament’s imposition of a monopoly on the sale of tea and the antics of a vainglorious king. Today, the tables have turned: it is Great Britain that finds itself at the mercy of major US tech firms – so huge and dominant that they constitute monopolies in their fields – as well as the whims of an erratic president. Yet, to the outside observer, Britain seems curiously at ease with this arrangement – at times even eager to subsidise its own economic dependence. Britain is hardly alone in submitting to the power of American firms, but it offers a clear case study in why nations need to develop a coordinated response to the rise of these hegemonic companies.
The current age of American tech monopoly began in the 2000s, when the UK, like many other countries, became almost entirely dependent on a small number of US platforms – Google, Facebook, Amazon and a handful of others. It was a time of optimism about the internet as a democratising force, characterised by the belief that these platforms would make everyone rich. The dream of the 1990s – naive but appealing – was that anyone with a hobby or talent could go online and make a living from it.
US tech dominance wasn’t the result of a single policy decision. Yet it was still a choice that countries made – as is highlighted by China’s decision to block foreign sites and build its own. While that move was far easier under an authoritarian system, it also amounted to an industrial policy – one that left China as the only other major economy with its own full digital ecosystem.
The pattern was sustained through the 2000s and 2010s. Cloud computing was quickly cornered by Amazon and Microsoft. No serious European or UK competitor emerged to challenge platforms such as Uber or Airbnb. These companies have undoubtedly brought us convenience and entertainment, but the wealth of the internet has not spread as widely as many hoped; instead, US firms took the lion’s share, becoming the most valuable corporations in history. Now the same thing is happening with artificial intelligence. Once more, the big profits look destined for Silicon Valley.
How did all this meet with such little resistance? In short, the UK and Europe followed the logic of free trade and globalisation. Nations, according to this theory, should focus only on what they do best. So just as it made sense for the UK to import French burgundies and Spanish hams, it also seemed logical to rely on American technology rather than trying to do it locally. Better to specialise instead in the UK’s own strengths, such as finance, the creative industries – or making great whisky.
But when it comes to these new platforms, the analogy with regular trade breaks down. There is a vast…
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