This year we’ve seen a major shift in the tech industry. Despite becoming more mainstream and inviting conversation around different aspects of the industry tech companies are under a lot of scrutiny from government officials and are looking for ways to adapt and expand to the majority of different fields without inviting even more challenges.
This year we saw a rise in fintech and the expenditure on technology in almost all industries. BigTech was a huge part of making this a more mainstream topic and making it accessible for the larger audiences to use and to take an interest in.
The rising importance of Tech
What has stood out this year though is the plethora of challenges that BigTech still faces even though most of the major players and lawmakers can agree that the benefits that these companies have brought to the modern customer can hardly be matcher with anything. Technology has slowly moved away from being its own secluded industry into now being an essential part of every service.
But the biggest challenge that these technologies still face is that they are restricted while the government officials do nothing to make the collaboration between the more realistic.
The digital presence is now essential to any business that wants to survive and achieve tangible success. Throughout embracing these technologies some brands and businesses managed to expand way past their scope in real life and have tapped into the audience that would have otherwise been inaccessible to them.
One of the clearest examples of this tendency would be online casinos. Different slots and user-friendly games have taken the gambling industry to another level. And this shift has been worldwide. You can access one of the online casino in Canada, which has more or less common regulations regarding gambling, or in Norway which has a unique approach to these topics. But the service is there and it is accessible for everyone, which is why digital presence is so important to all types of services.
The main challenges in the industry
Many people are already against these Big Tech companies because of the popular narrative about them abusing power and neglecting customer data safety. And while it would be wrong to generalize this to all tech companies, this narrative isn’t completely off base. A big reason why tech companies are facing many challenges is that throughout the years there have been far too many cases of companies like Facebook or Google using customer data beyond what’s disclosed on their terms and conditions but since their impact and power is so big they don’t really ever suffer from the consequences.
The CEOs might attend a hearing or answer questions publicly but there is still a lot that we don’t know about the way these big companies handle customer information. And the friendly relationship between the two is unlikely simply because of the regulations and the possibilities that we have there.
Despite the numerous controversies the shares keep going up. Just this year Apple stock went up 69% and set a high-water mark last week. Alphabet, Google’s parent company went up 28.5% setting its own record. These companies continue to thrive and grow despite all the investigations and accusations, which is why they rub the government officials the wrong way. It seems like these companies can do no wrong and hence the authorities are using a restricted hand when dealing with these companies.
But since the consumer input has become more important on both ends of the spectrum, it is likely that the authorities will have to loosen their grip. These companies have proven time and time again that they are more resilient and can bounce back even in cases of a major stock crash.
The most successful collaborations with the recent surge of fintech have been those between big tech companies and the well established, traditional financial institutions. It is evident the importance of technology will continue to grow at a fast rate and it is up to this traditional institution whether or not they want to become a part of this major shift of getting left behind.
Embracing technology has let many people finally have access to the services they have never experienced before and it has made a lot easier to make transactions safe and efficient. But this potential can only be explored fully with the encouragement from authorities and the government bodies. Their request for disclosing operating systems and complying with regulations is completely reasonable.
But these regulations are not necessarily fit for communicating with BigTech and often don’t consider the specifications of the industry. While tech firms have proven that they can thrive on their own as well, with the rise of fintech it is becoming increasingly important the traditional financial institution that does have the necessary licensing for conducting certain transactions and offering financial services it is becoming crucial that the two find a way to collaborate successfully.
For that to happen big transformations are necessary on both ends. Judging from the previous experiences both parties are motivated to stand their ground strongly, but if both reevaluate the possibilities they could tp into if they chose to collaborate, they will surely find a way to start these discussions.
Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi