Data Economy

Abstract

Many innovations of the late 20th and early 21st century have had a profound impact on both businesses and consumers. The latest evolution of this rapid technological change has been the use of consumer's action and digital tracks as sources of economic value formation (Lamni, Pantzar, 2019), also described as a data economy. This paper aims to analyze the historical background of this rapid change, starting from the advent of Computers and arriving at the distributed use of big data across industries and economies, assessing the ethical and epistemological consequences derived from the wide application of this data. The first chapter analyzes the historical background of the data economy, extending the analysis from the invention of Computers, to the connection between them through the Internet and the switch to a mobile society powered by the introduction of Mobile Phones. Furthermore, the chapter will focus on how both businesses and consumers have adapted to this technological change, assessing the alteration of the role of consumers and the evolution of business models in the big data era. The second chapter further highlights the data economy with the example of Google Inc. The company was a pioneer during the advent of the Internet, and it has been continuously evolving, being at the forefront of the technological revolution. The chapter focuses on the history of this company, firstly assessing the foundation and its core business, the search engine. Moreover, the research highlights the development of additional businesses that have changed multiple markets. Finally, the third chapter discusses the ethical and epistemological consequences deriving from the big data era that have been highlighted in the literature.