‘Big Tech’ & the Global Economy: A Primer

Global economic development has been going through a process of rising polarisation. Countries in the global South are far from being able to catch up with the global North, where digital technology companies are the new corporate giants.

How does the digitalisation of the economy contribute to the development gap? What do we mean when we refer to Big Tech, and why has it come to dominate the global economy? How are global value chains being transformed by digitalisation? What does all of this mean for the Asia-Pacific region?

This report is a primer on how large digital companies have attained and maintain their position at the top of the global economic hierarchy; how disparities between and within countries are exacerbated within this digitalised economy; how Big Tech and speculative finance reinforce each other; and how countries and progressive actors in Asia-Pacific can promote policies that mitigate the harms of new technologies while ensuring they are used for the public good.