We’ve come a long way from wearing an oversize sign on our chest, bumping into each person on the streets in hopes that they will buy what your selling from the back of your van.
EXPERT DIY TIPS Will Google, Facebook & Amazon be the next Chase, BoFa, Citigroup?
No one can deny that the banks rule the world. As governments from Greece to the United States struggle with debt the largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, earned $34 billion in profit in the first half of 2011. But what does that have to do with Google, Apple, Facebook & Amazon?
If we look back at the formation of the banks, one can see parallels of “simple beginnings” to the formation of these giant digital companies. In 1798, Aaron Burr established the Manhattan Company, (eventually Chase bought by JP Morgan) with the aim of bringing clean water to the city from the Bronx River but in fact designed as a front for the creation of New York’s second bank, rivaling Alexander Hamilton’s Bank of New York (BoFa). A century later these American banks have come to define the 20th century from Wall Street to the Global Economy.
For the 21st century, the baton is about to be passed on. Originally Apple made consumer electronics, Google ran a search engine, Amazon was a web store, and Facebook was a social network. Today, they are in everything, competing with each other for Mobile (iphone vs android), Tablets (ipad vs kindle), Social Network, Online Advertisement, Search (Facebook vs Google) and even recently the banking industry.
At first you would think, well thats business but when you add the fact that governments are “working” (censoring) with these digital giants to the CIA tracking revolts by Tweet and Facebook it makes you wonder how powerful are these digital companies and where are they heading?
Aaron Burr’s original aim to bring clean water to the city has snowballed into global banking organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Who today would have thought Google’s goal of cataloging all the online world’s information would be creating a car that drives itself?
There is no doubt that in the near future, young generations will look at Google, Apple, Facebook & Amazon the way we today look at JP Morgan Chase, BoFa, Citigroup. But all I can hope is that the ones that win the race to the top are the ones that want to help the people, not profit from the people as banks being doing for too long.
