How We Learned to Worship at the Altar of Big Tech

Google opened its first flagship store in New York City last week. It’s worth taking a closer look at this.

For an organisation that has incredible breadth in how it directs and influences our lives and the economy, Google’s revenue sources are noticeably singular. In Alphabet’s most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, more than 80 per cent of Google’s revenue came from advertising.

Google’s foray into retail resembles a homier version of Apple stores, but if Apple is the exemplar (and it is, both operationally and financially), then Google will have to make a plan on what they can sell inside their four walls. Their Pixel phones, Nest products and Chromebooks don’t have the same breadth, allure or lucrative price points as Apple hardware.

Apple’s revenue streams reflect this. While Apple remains the world’s most profitable retailer per square metre, the diversity in its revenue streams underpins its strength as a stock. While it’s clearly a hardware stock, Apple’s services division has gone from 5 per cent of revenue to over 20 per cent in the past decade.

Amazon, on the other hand, has focused its retail play on the clever acquisition of Wholefoods and the development of its human-less Amazon Go chain.

Revenue diversification has been a struggle for both Google and Facebook, but when compared with Apple and Amazon, they’ve all reached a status where connecting at a meta-level isn’t enough.

They have started building brand cathedrals and exhibiting behavioural traits that echo a sense of religiosity. This is tricky to pull off, unless of course, the organisation in question has a large number of disciples who sign up blindly to whatever may be on offer.

Of course, this is all made clear in the terms and conditions that few read because they are ‘biblical’ in length and not quite as simple to remember as the Ten Commandments, which have remained unchanged for the past 2,000 years.

That’s in contrast to Big Tech’s terms of service, which seem to change every other day.

If religion is a business, then it’s fair to say that Big Tech firms have borrowed heavily from major religions’ strategy playbooks. While Big Tech can’t yet offer everlasting life in their cloud services (but rest assured, they are working on it), you can be sure any digital errors or social faux pas committed by their users will linger forever in their servers.

God is in the Detail

Even if these Big Tech firms display religious tendencies, nothing compares to the cathedrals of the Apple retail store. Adorned with equally high ceilings, lots of glass and beautiful timber finishes, it really is the church of the brand.

If you’ve damaged your Apple device, you can book an appointment with your local Apple priest, sorry Genius, who will hear your confession for mortal sins committed like messing up the latest software download or dropping devices once too often.

Afterwards, they offer counsel on how to remove your bad digital habits and you may join the congregation for an in-store sermon. This sermon, of course, is in the guise of a skills session delivered at the brand pulpit by a modern-day disciple of Steve Jobs on how to follow the Apple device doctrine and live a fruitful digital life.

Whipping up fervour for the adoring masses isn’t limited to religious institutions. I’ve set the alarm for 3am to tune into the annual Apple Developer Conference, witnessing a sea of consumers and journalists coo in unison over evangelists like Jobs drop the latest iPhone model. The rapturous audience is all too ready to sing the praises of the anointed one, like a Pentecostal congregation.

Although Big Tech CEOs are not actually leaders of religious institutions, they sure embrace Messianic behaviour patterns. Their original brand mantras set lofty goals for humanity rather than brand propositions.

Facebook – A more open and connected society (Zuckerberg)

Twitter – Change the world 140 characters at a time (Dorsey)

Google – Organise the world’s information (Brin and Page)

Apple – Think Different (Jobs)

Elon Musk proclaims on Twitter to his adoring 57 million followers that we need to become a multi-planetary species to survive. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey frequently indulges in ten-day vipassana silence retreats. (His next retreat might be a good time to mull whether he should resign from his Twitter role in light of the poor ROI he has delivered – which is unsurprising, as the majority of his focus is on Square, Inc.)

Mysterious Ways

Like an omnipotent god, Big Tech sees all and also works in mysterious ways with its secret algorithms, algorithms which provide a sense of hope our content will eventually go viral. They keep us coming back to the digital altar.

Never in human history has a brand enjoyed more breadth and frequency of influence over its constituents than Facebook.

While globally Christianity has 2.4 billion adherents across its branches, Facebook has eclipsed that with 2.85 active members across its brand portfolio.

Google has 4 billion active users, Apple has 1.65 billion active devices and Amazon Prime is quickly creeping up on the Christians in the USA with 147 million paid-up subscribers.

Acquired Power

Most informed Christians will know that Jesus wasn’t actually born on Christmas Day. Solstice celebrations were integrated into the Roman Catholic software platform when they took over from the pagans.

Likewise, Big Tech likes to acquire their threats rather than compete against them. Facebook spent $19 billion when it acquired WhatsApp, albeit with a much lower body count than when the Roman Catholics converted the pagans.

However, there is a parallel with the sheer volume of acquisitions. Facebook has acquired more than 70 companies, while the Roman Catholics at their peak managed to control 48 countries, although neither managed to get through the Great (fire) Wall of China.

I’d like to remind people not to feel guilty about only going to church at Christmas. Every brand loves it when a lapsed user returns again – it’s new revenue.

Christmas is the Catholics’ biggest brand promotion of the year, predating even Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The Roman Catholic church and Big Tech love the bonus traffic and appreciate a larger taking at the offertory.

We’ll know Big Tech has really made the grade when their brand promotions become public holidays for all.

The reason religion can demand such social power is through their brand activities. Brand-owned schools and hospitals offer a level of altruism unequalled by any commercial brand to date. Educating the illiterate and healing the sick – that’s a pretty strong brand promise, not to mention the unbeatable offer of eternal life.

In contrast to religious organisations who pay no tax on their revenue, Big Tech does pay the legal minimum with offshore chicanery. They do, however, fill the void with techno-billionaire philanthropy.

While the giving is real, it’s never done in silence, without shrewd calculation of its brand burnishing and vested economic interests. At times, the philanthropy appears to function as a billionaire’s reputational laundromat.

Bezos has donated $100 million to feeding America, but fails to pay his warehouse workers a living wage. He ostentatiously donates another $10 billion to fight climate change while having the biggest private fleet of delivery vehicles on the road, and energy-hungry server farms.

Facebook likewise attempted to provide free internet access in India through Internet.org so the users could access Facebook.

Membership has its rewards

There is nothing more profitable than businesses that have become the literal fabric of society. When organisations invent new jargon, shape our behaviour and provide the tools we use, they become all-encompassing.

Big Tech provides the platforms for governments to communicate with their constituents and for everyone else to socialise and transact.

With money gravitating towards Big Tech companies, they are now more powerful than religion. It tells us a story about investing that is almost beyond strategy, and ultimately is about power.

Unfettered power often leads to outperforming returns on investment. The numbers already reflect this, and even in an era of increasing regulation and anti-trust revisions, it appears little will change in the short term.