The wild power of aggregation theory

How did Google, Amazon, and Facebook get so big so fast? The best answer we have is an idea called Aggregation Theory. This is how it works.
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[@TheVerge]

Are big tech companies too big?

[@impendio]

Yes but no.

[@Tenxprofits]

I miss the old days!! What happened to kids playing outside like we did, this generation sits behind screens.. next generation what will they be doing?

[@muneeb-khan]

Yeah

[@mywin_8275]

Terrifyingly so

[@publika6883]

@@impendio Just yes

[@spenarkley]

"The unlimited walmart. Unboundet by the laws of physics." But still no ps5 / rtx 3080 in stock.

[@aksmakesvideos]

so that you visit the site again and again but instead buy other stuff. *hypothesis*

[@teruokun-us]

I mean, even if an internet business can break the traditional laws of physical constraints, there a finite amount of production capacity in the world. I guarantee if given the demand, if there were PS5s and RTX 3080s available from the supplier, they’d definitely sell them

[@maxfriedman3148]

Yes!! Ben Thompson getting the respect he deserves

[@PhoebeBooffay]

My dog looks just like the one in your pfp!

[@nabii5951]

Wildly underrated video, flawless explanation and logic.

[@mubtasimsajidahmed_arian]

Infinite hotel paradox: *NO* Infinite Walmart store paradox: *YES*

[@djayjp]

Paradigm?

[@tesla4623]

Ironically, this video is on KZbin.

[@syednajiullahhussaini]

The place we always come to "The lock"

[@CH-vm6cq]

You don't understand irony.

[@nivbration]

Tesla Yes, because that’s where all the people are. I wish we could do something about it but till there is regulation or another competitor, we have to deal with it.

[@rousseau327]

@@CH-vm6cq Well, if you understood the point of the video, you'd see the irony in it.

[@MottaGroove]

Its and old irony. Was said that the the capitalism aways win, since the socialist still needed to pay for the panflets e the rent of the meeting room. Google have no problem if someone makes a youtube video criticizing them, since they make money of that video.

[@susee7069]

The best example is arguably "Google Photos" Remember when they said "Free unlimited storage", all they were doing was bringing in customers... and after locking them in their platform, they won't go looking for another service

[@dslylsd]

You get free express quality backups still even after the high quality uses your storage

[@gnperdue]

Ben is a genius and his podcast “Exponent” is brilliant.

[@TSTypeR]

Shout out to Stratechtery!

[@Speak_Out_and_Remove_All_Doubt]

Ooooh, they have the internet on computers now.

[@neelsn007]

More videos like this please 👍

[@JoelOman1980]

Check out "CNBC explains", it's basically the same type of videos but they've got a head start on the subject(s)...

[@geoffrichards6121]

Mad respect to Grayson Blackmon for the cool graphics (I enjoyed the "infinite Wallmart" vs the Candle shop, but the mini Pharmacy, Music store and Sports store also have very cool little details)

[@DABx___]

Easy to connect the dots looking back but can you connect them looking forward?

[@VamsiBethapudy]

Finally a theory that explains the confusion about how these companies can be monopolistic and consumer-oriented at the same time. Not just in the case of Facebook, even for Google and Amazon, the consumers are the product!

[@rezaebrahimi9807]

yup and as the customers here we are talking about whats the water quality when they own the pipes

[@TheConcernedIndian]

Man this guy's way of speaking is weirdly similar to Edward Snowden

[@Hobbles_]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. And with how global everything is now, I'm not sure that the US government would ever even try to break apart these big companies. If Google or Apple or Microsoft or Amazon were broken apart to increase competition again, it could potentially allow a company from another country to take up the top dog spot. I don't think the US would want that to happen, so we might all be stuck with these large companies that never stop expanding. What are your thoughts on that?

[@JammUtkarsh]

Man, this was heck of a ride. We do need more video like this. ❤️

[@mguanipa2]

Big thing too is that we allowed tech companies to just buy and acquire other tech companies like crazy solely for the purpose of themselves cornering the market even more

[@mguanipa2]

@@voidmayonnaise dude that's so true too!! Crazy how bad it is

[@Nishith8]

We need more open digital infrastructure like an open-source protocol for everything e-commerce. Or a decentralised way of sharing conset approved information. Something like open source uber will be great.

[@specy_]

You know how open source goes, you either make it and get it famous IMMEDIATELY or someone will just steal it and sell it and call it their own

[@gizbo_music]

Wonderful video! I Haven't watched the Verge in a long time. This was very informative and flowed very well with my morning coffee. Cheers!

[@arnabm013]

What an amazingly insightful video. Learned something new. 👍🏿👍🏿

[@basketrise64]

Great video, we need more of this

[@rahulravindran2615]

The scary thing is they do it so well and every market they get into there's innovation

[@hassan6692]

because they have got the dough

[@Hollowdude15]

Great video Verge and I like yoru videos so much :]

[@HerveMaas]

Eye opening video. Thank you!

[@DaveGilbertPhD]

Great story. Thanks for this.

[@iliil1630]

My favorite show!! Lot of love from Brazil

[@erickespinosa8240]

well just like Ben says: we need NEW laws for this reality, not bend the old ones to fit because that just won't work

[@denstontjackson6279]

Very informative video I thank you for sharing this information as it relates to how the internet trends are going

[@iBair]

Aaaand now I know what I'll be researching for the next week

[@shlokchandak]

This video literally popped up when I was texting to my friend about Google in whatsapp.😂🤯 *The internet listens*

[@TheVerge]

👀

[@lopahelision5207]

Great video. Learnt two new terms, aggregation theory and infinite walmart. Thank you

[@adelmaher7053]

Thumbnail: *exist Bill Gates: Im I a joke to you

[@UnipornFrumm]

You should be more afraid of facebook amazon apple google twitter and mainstream media as they are all friends instead of fearing Bill Gates

[@markli6754]

the infinite supermarket is based on code. The big firms are also able to fire those who type codes after the digital services are well-developed.

[@ayush0477]

this guy is very good , really like his videos.

[@nebolos]

Aggregation Theory = Platform economy = Two-sided market = Multisided platform etc. I'm sure many brilliant people will continue to coin other original terms to describe the same thing

[@samisawani5289]

Truly interesting!

[@danielmiller4279]

You could’ve just read Capital.

[@Jebusankel]

So how to fix the Amazon problem? My ideas: 1. Have USPS create fulfillment centers 2. Merchants run their own FOSS based stores ala Shopify 3. Shopping around happens via search that aggregates across stores 4. Credit card companies offer insurance against store misbehavior, bake it into upfront cost.

[@jofo9742]

Incredible piece

[@vn773]

The Yellow pages were the Google and Facebook of the printed world, but the problem was not aggregation theory, the internet and availability of it by the general consumers is what changed everything

[@andrewyamishi4959]

This is good information

[@jamuojisan]

8:14 "most founders and tech investors don't wanna solve problems" well, they've solved some problems, that's why they've become big. please do not underestimate the intelligence of the customers/users.

[@kennetht8893]

I was like wtf when he said that. The rest of the video is pretty good tho

[@atrombonist]

Only that their ultimate motivation to solve problems is not helping the customers, but growing in power by helping customers, so they reach more of them.

[@jamuojisan]

@@atrombonist I don't see anything wrong about that. They are businesses. Not nonprofit organizations.

[@atrombonist]

@@jamuojisan Just be aware that they are not your friend but you are their revenue generator

[@jamuojisan]

@@atrombonist just try to live without them.

[@Extratone]

Spied the Bandcamp app. :) Good man.

[@musictorelaxandunwind]

Loved it

[@swng314]

Interesting explanation. Not sure I was able to follow all of it, though

[@SangAcquiescentFroid]

DO THIS ONE TRICK TO BECOME BIG TECH

[@jimit_shukla]

I use bookmarks alot 🙋🏻‍♂️. And when I need to find about stuff I've mostly shifted to DuckDuckGo

[@TheBalkanSpy]

DuckDuckGo is buying search results from google, but without giving it any important data. In theory you should be getting similar results on both, but in reality you will always get better results from google because they can customise the results for you.

[@ushdhyxywb]

@@TheBalkanSpy DuckDuckGo uses Bing.

[@TheBalkanSpy]

@@ushdhyxywb Actually it buys from Bing, Yahoo, Yandex and Google. But if you go and have a look at their (very transparent) data. You will find thad during 2019, about 87% of searches they bought were from Google...

[@bogdanlargeanu420]

Theory seems to miss the point that migrating from amazon or google has little to no cost. Uber never locked anyone in as user, the moment was at risk to be banned in London, I just switch to Bolt, another provided. Same thing for amazon when they don't have my product or is too expensive.

[@MrJannick14]

This is such great timing, considering the latest anti-trust lawsuits against Google and Facebook.

[@ultrathanos3287]

superb

[@alxisl]

Russell is the cutest explainer on youtube! ☺️

[@JUDE_WK]

in fact, the "solution" is quite simple. Each individual does what he wants, buys where he wants, and does what he wants if the conditions are met. The problem is that we hold others responsible for the decisions we make, stating that if something seems to be wrong, it is not our fault, but because they manipulated us into doing that ...

[@business_central]

That's just great! We need more of this please!

[@cadeepakgupta9435]

its hard and smart work

[@macberry4048]

Google, facebook and Netflix have lots of things in common but one major thing is they all tried to sale their company and got turned down. It's like they're more friendly than the last set of gatekeepers because they integrate young companies into their business and help them grow but these young companies could have been great without any help. Other than Snapchat their isn't a well known company that has turned down merging with the major silicon valley companies

[@matthewboyd8689]

I think they ironic thing about it is that startup companies are hard to make because they need capital but these big companies can make their own startup companies because they can afford to lose money because they have so much capital. I once saw that as a good thing, but after watching this it's making me question that.

[@garvgupta2906]

am I the only one who thinks that he talked about a pretty simple concept but for a very long time?

[@ak_hoops]

My goodness I don't know why I waited so long to see this. Gosh this is all facts

[@WalterGirao]

And that comment at the end is just mean spirited. You don't know these men and their motivations. They are actually shockingly different from each other

[@Voulltapher]

While I agree with your sentiment, should we judge them by their assumed intentions, or the real world effects, the companies they are the face of, have?

[@WalterGirao]

@@Voulltapher both. Remember that their companies all have very different effects on the world. I can't think of two companies more different than google and amazon, for example

[@deyesed]

@@WalterGirao they generate data and business for each other.

[@nabii5951]

...What if someone figures out how to package any combination of streaming services at a reduced rate? Boom. Infinite Walmart.

[@Ayosubzero]

Is Verge a university? I just l learned so much.

[@jagadevs8603]

Can anyone suggest any books or videos to know more about aggregation model

[@AhmadSohailWahab]

What are the names of the people on the thumbnail of this video?

[@Saffy1]

okay so why Amazon is not available in my country ?

[@anvarzhonzhurajev2393]

Either they find your country too small or too complex logistically or too risky in legal terms (licensing, taxes, etc)

[@Saffy1]

@@anvarzhonzhurajev2393 There are smaller countries with Amazon so that's not the case I don't have much information about the second thing you said but I think the reason why they avoid stepping in is the competition. We already have a site which has same role as Amazon. Would they be able to compete ? Probably not, that's why they stay away.

[@whartanto2]

3:28 I was more interested in the "Among Us" apps than the GrubHub

[@pwrofmusic]

It starts from u. Dont blame business if u can start a business u can stop it too. So its important to teach people how to choose and not get stuck to just one thing.

[@hlboerr]

8:20 it's almost as if they're competing!

[@rishabhsheth6087]

Agree

[@zumabbar]

nooo where's the closing laptop intro ):

[@desmond-hawkins]

Interesting video! I would suggest the host learn the difference between the web and the Internet though.

[@joebody7198]

Well, I guess I’m referring to Amazon as The Infinite Walmart from now on ...

[@goyangi2014]

But the scary thing is that arent they actually also solving problems for better service hence more users?

[@garyboy7135]

"The tech founders don't want to figure out better way to do things" everything made sense until this conclusion, which is not only a big leap but also very disconnected from the entire video content. How does verge arrive at this conclusion? What is the evidence and data to support this thesis?

[@salvattoremacedo]

x2

[@JamesRoyceDawson]

I'd be interested to see an open source/distributed network compete with this to remove the middle-man of aggregators .

[@EspHack]

then its up to the population, which today is bordering on idiocracy(2006)

[@ElementalGeneral]

Today I learnt what a Strip Mall really is...

[@musictorelaxandunwind]

Is amazon is going to be divided like Facebook

[@mariacheebandidos7183]

just remember in a functioning democracy it is better for the government to have the power / your personal information. the government is more accountable to the people and less likely to abuse it.

[@kalashnopany]

Once VR (virtual reality) takes over this will become worse cause then we won't visit the second best place so even many worse things will happen

[@nihilitys]

Will this never stop though? 🤔

[@Hollowdude15]

Wow😊

[@steveyoung3748]

Uber also maintains its user base by undercutting the price of the taxi market by bypassing a bunch of regulations (not considering drivers employees, etc.) that taxi companies face. Sure the app might make the user experience of hiring a ride better but I thought the price was the big driver for bringing people to the app.

[@AverageDrafter]

Existing anti-trust laws and theories cannot handle the concept of a large, voluntary, and active userbase being the single most valuable asset in human history.

[@AndresOssa]

Please send this video to ALL senators (specifically to that one asking Zuckerberg to knock down a tweet).

[@BojanTomic]

Ah, 21st century mindset. 🤦🏻‍♂️ No one is actually forcing anyone to use any product. People just don't want to seem 'unpopular' or something like that, so they just follow the masses. All these big companies are big because people chose to use them, not because they forced them to do so.

[@chicagolongboarder]

Freudian slip 2:34

[@yeetusfetus8687]

LOL good catch

[@MA-th4ts]

What about Netflix. Is it not the same as Amazon

[@TheDV1Zone]

This is what Andrew Yang was saying and still is saying.

[@yashthehuman]

The answer is Aggregation Theory

[@chenbayun9494]

would be better if split the platform as a separate company to sell service rather than feed on ads

[@armandooliveira3712]

does this guy just discovered the internet?..he literally just discribed why the internet exists...

[@impendio]

Apple really is an exception here, they only hold the us phone market and not by a large margin, Amazon and Google are ubiquitous everywhere... Also Apple is not an Ad company like Facebook, Google or Twitter, and they don't aggregate physical products from infinite sellers, they just sell their own first party products, what I will concede is that they do aggregate apps and app developers but android is still the far larger share of users, even if Apple makes more money out of less users...

[@s.flanders]

Yeah, Apple has a much better defense against the accusations that can be levied against other "big tech." Their superpower is their brand. As you said, even though Android has many more users (who download more apps), Apple customers spend more on apps. Nevertheless, Apple have been abusive in their treatment of developers, and it wouldn't hurt to make that harder for them to do.

[@emirro]

But anyways Apple just creates their own Walmart (the Apple ecosystem). The probability for a loyal customer (that purchased an iPhone, AirPods, Macbook, iPad, Apple Watch and tons of exclusive macOS/iOS apps) to quit theit ecosystem for Android leads to zero when one spent too much for the "magic". I find services of the big tech companies very convenient since it's big and global. No one wants to use tons of messengers when there is one/two where all of your friends are. No one wants to search and download another local taxi service while travelling. But the closed ecosystems might be evil. My opinion is that key is to oblige big tech to make the services compatible with each other. Not to forcefully split them into smaller businesses.

[@YeeLer]

Damn, i'm seeing a double notch here.

[@sudarshan3965]

Is one infinite bigger than other infinite

[@rotinoma]

This is why Google Reader's demise is a huge loss. But for Google, who could care less, they already got that via Search.

[@kkkk-wg6je]

Please, someone show this video to congress. They don’t get it.

[@ucheucheuche]

What is a facebook?

[@zaydghazzawi7522]

It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t system truthfully. Average consumers don’t want a multitude of choices, they want one or two. That’s why google has become the powerhouse that it is. On the opposite spectrum we have a multitude of media apps (Netflix, HBO max, Amazon prime,cbs..) all I hear from people about the multitude of choices is that it’s basically cable and they hate it. They wish there were just a few apps that offered more. When you want convenience and multitude of choices it sounds like a paradox to me at times.

[@Proteus846]

One of the ways I can think of to topple these companies is for customers to stop putting up with them even though their services are so useful. Be it Facebook, Google, or Amazon, they all are terrible companies. They all sell user data and ignore user privacy. Facebook profits off negatively impacting the developing minds of young people and feeding the egos and other negative character traits of older people. Google is an information company that has way more on you than it should. Amazon is problematic because using it feeds their CEO way more money than he needs - I joke frequently about not using Amazon because I don’t want to contribute to Bezos’ twenty-fourth yacht, which is hyperbole but I’m trying to bring attention to how disgustingly rich that man is and how much he’s a symptom of a problem in our economical systems. I use services by all three. Facebook, Google, and Amazon. But I’m working on reducing my dependency on all three: I rarely use Facebook anymore; I’ve switched to Bing for search and am working on switching to Outlook instead of Gmail; I try to buy from other places besides Amazon whenever possible. That’s difficult because part of my job involves Facebook and it’s a convenient way to stay connected with people; Google’s services are more developed and supported than Microsoft’s; I’m not rich, so avoiding Amazon would cost me a lot more money over time. But if everyone took steps to reduce dependencies on these companies, we could make a huge difference.

[@anmol3457]

i haven't seen this anchor in a long time hmm