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Confirmation of a US Government Probe Pushes Facebook's Market Loss To $90 Billion (qz.com)
The US Federal Trade Commission has confirmed that it is investigating Facebook over its privacy practices, following recent revelations that data firm Cambridge Analytica harvested and exploited tens of millions of users' data without their permission. From a report: Facebook's stock renewed its downward slide, bringing the company's total loss of market value to around $90 billion since the scandal broke 10 days ago. "The FTC takes very seriously recent press reports raising substantial concerns about the privacy practices of Facebook. Today, the FTC is confirming that it has an open non-public investigation into these practices," said Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement.
I always assumed people using Facebook didn't particularly care about what happens with their data, so I'm no sure who all of a sudden is outraged. I assumed it was way worse than this. Plus why focus on Facebook. There are data brokerage companies out there that are probably doing way creepier things than this.
To proper evaluate the market value (or, rather, the importance for the global society) simply imagine the consequences of sudden disappearance of the business.
What happens if those overblown tech giants (Facebook, Twitter, Uber, Apple, whatever shit) cease to exist? NOTHING. Some moderate annoyance and shit on the fan for a relatively large group of people. The world moves on, many won't even notice. "Oh dear, we won't get a brand new iAssScratcher this year, what a drama!".
Now, how about John Deere? Market cap 10 times less than the Facepalm, their agricultural machines work probably on half of the Earth's fields. Imagine the consequences of that being vanished.
Or Gazprom, also 10 times less than the bunch of PHP scripts, what happens when there comes no gas anymore, a major fucking blow to the little dream castle of greenpeacers and also huge impact on the whole civilization.