The DOI matches its Crossref record; 9 of the 9 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Augmenting digital monopolies: A corporate financialization perspective on the rise of Big Tech
Abstract
Building on the notion of corporate financialization, this article analyzes the financial dynamics of the world’s largest digital platforms over the period 2000–2020: Alibaba, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, and Tencent. These “Big Tech” corporations jointly form the infrastructural core of the digital economy. Taking cues from critical media studies and political economy, we probe their financial statements according to three stylized indicators of corporate financialization: (i) expanding financial assets and debt; (ii) augmenting asset structures, with intangible assets in the form of goodwill ballooning alongside tangible capital; and (iii) maximizing shareholder value. Our findings point to commonalities among the ‘avantgarde of digital capitalism’, where feedback loops between mounting market dominance, data extraction, and above-average profits have been successfully leveraged with key tools of corporate financialization to accelerate Big Tech’s infrastructural dominance across economy and society.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“These corporations, with considerable infrastructural power, shape global supply chains, labour markets, and workplace practices through their applications, platforms, and ecosystems (Klinge et al. 2022).”
From Reflections on Sociotechnical Change: New Directions for and Continuities in Research on New Technology, Work, and Employment (2026) · cites this paper as Klinge et al. 2022
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & de Waal, M. (2018) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190889760.001.0001 · Cited by 2,951
Gillespie, T. (2010) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/1461444809342738 · Cited by 2,522 · cited 1×
“As indicated, they deliver these services through platforms, understood as “ multi-sided digital frameworks ” (Kenney and Zysman, 2016; also see Gillespie, 2010) that enable and regulate interactions between multiple user groups.”
BackgroundMaximizing shareholder value: a new ideology for corporate governance
Lazonick, W., & O'Sullivan, M. (2000) · Economy and Society · doi:10.1080/030851400360541 · Cited by 1,970
Financialisation and the slowdown of accumulation
Stockhammer, E. (2004) · Cambridge Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/cje/beh032 · Cited by 1,103
Platform capitalism: The intermediation and capitalisation of digital economic circulation
Langley, P., & Leyshon, A. (2017) · Finance and Society · doi:10.2218/finsoc.v3i1.1936 · Cited by 989 · cited 2×
“…by fi rst-mover advantages, network effects, economies of scale, and expansion by means of M&As, these corporations now form a distinct, indispensable layer covering the wider global economy, where power rests on the capacity to extract, evaluate, and leverage data (Langley and Leyshon, 2017).”
BackgroundThe Rise of the Platform Business Model and the Transformation of Twenty-First-Century Capitalism
Rahman, K. S., & Thelen, K. (2019) · Politics & Society · doi:10.1177/0032329219838932 · Cited by 522
Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay: Is the Internet driving competition or market monopolization?
Haucap, J., & Heimeshoff, U. (2014) · International Economics and Economic Policy · doi:10.1007/s10368-013-0247-6 · Cited by 302
Big Tech: Four Emerging Forms of Digital Rentiership
Birch, K., & Cochrane, D. T. (2022) · Science as Culture · doi:10.1080/09505431.2021.1932794 · Cited by 121
A new business model? The capital market and the new economy
Feng, H., Froud, J., Johal, S., Haslam, C., & Williams, K. (2001) · Economy and Society · doi:10.1080/03085140120089063 · Cited by 117
Research works printed but not linked: 87
- Alizila. 2012. Alibaba closes $7.6 billion share repurchase and restructuring of Yahoo! relationship. Alizila (blog). September 18, 2012. https://www.alizila.com/alibaba-closes-7-6-billion-share-repurchase-and-restructuring-of-yahoo-relationship/
- 10.1016/j.cpa.2010.06.006 · DOI
- Aramonte S (2020) Mind the buybacks, beware of the leverage. BIS Quarterly Review September 2020: 49–59.
- 10.1080/13563467.2020.1865900 · DOI
- 10.1080/09538259.2020.1869400 · DOI
- Bartlett J (2018) The People vs Tech: How the Internet Is Killing Democracy. London, UK: Penguin.
- 10.1177/0309132514558441 · DOI
- 10.1093/ser/mwr016 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.jacceco.2003.10.006 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1177/0162243919829567 · DOI
- 10.1177/20539517211017308 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1177/2056305120971632 · DOI
- 10.1080/09692290.2016.1262446 · DOI
- 10.1111/j.1467-954X.1984.tb00113.x · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1007/978-3-319-28225-1_6 · DOI
- Christophers B (2020) Rentier Capitalism. Who Owns the Economy and Who Pays for it? London, UK: Verso.
- 10.1080/13563467.2022.2027355 · DOI
- 10.1177/14614440222226316 · DOI
- 10.1080/01603477.2015.1116370 · DOI
- 10.1111/meca.12179 · DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-78414-4_5 · DOI
- 10.1007/s11614-019-00353-4 · DOI
- 10.1080/00213624.2019.1646609 · DOI
- 10.4324/9781315142876-4 · DOI
- 10.1093/rfs/hhz003 · DOI
- Feldman M Guy F Iammarino S et al. (2021) Gathering round Big Tech: how the market for acquisitions reinforces regional inequalities in the US. LSE Department of Geography and Environment Discussion Paper Series 28. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/110718/1/Paper_28_gathering_round_big_tech.pdf · DOI
- 10.1080/09538259.2016.1147734 · DOI
- 10.1177/0486613413487154 · DOI
- Foroohar R (2019) Don’t Be Evil. How Big Tech Betrayed its Founding Principles - and All of Us. New York, NY: Currency.
- 10.1080/030851400360578 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.4324/9780203414941 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1016/j.cpa.2012.07.007 · DOI
- 10.4018/978-1-60960-071-6.ch007 · DOI
- Harrity. 2021. Patent 300® List. Harrity & Harrity, LLP (blog). 2021. https://harrityllp.com/patent300/
- 10.1177/2056305115603080 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.2218/finsoc.v4i2.2870 · DOI
- 10.1080/09505431.2021.1984423 · DOI
- Hong Yu (2008) Distinctive characteristics of China’s path of ICT development: a critical analysis of Chinese developmental strategies in light of the Eastern Asian model. International Journal of Communication 2: 456–471.
- 10.1080/23812346.2021.1877446 · DOI
- 10.16997/wpcc.280 · DOI
- 10.1177/1748048517742783 · DOI
- 10.1080/13563467.2019.1664446 · DOI
- Kenney M, Zysman J (2016) The rise of the platform economy. Issues in Science and Technology 32(3): 61–69.
- 10.1017/mor.2020.48 · DOI
- Khan LM (2018) Sources of tech platform power. Georgetown Law Technology Review 2(2): 325–334.
- 10.3989/ris.2020.78.4.m20.006 · DOI
- 10.1111/gec3.12588 · DOI
- 10.1080/09692290.2019.1649293 · DOI
- 10.1093/SER/mwi008 · DOI · Paper page
- Lapavitsas C (2013) Profiting without Producing. How Finance Exploits Us All. London; New York: Verso.
- 10.36687/inetwp127 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.accfor.2013.07.002 · DOI
- 10.1016/B978-0-7506-7799-8.50008-5 · DOI
- Mazzucato M (2018) The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. London, UK: Penguin.
- Mouré C (2021) A capital-as-power analysis of Google’s differential power trajectory. Review of Capital as Power 2(1): 71–90.
- 10.1016/j.cpa.2013.08.006 · DOI
- Murphy BM (2002) A critical history of the internet. In: Elmer G (ed) Critical Perspectives on the Internet. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 27–45.
- Nachtwey O, Staab P (2015) Die Avantgarde des digitalen Kapitalismus. (Dezember 2015/Januar 2016). Mittelweg 36(6): 59–84.
- 10.1177/0163443718818384 · DOI
- 10.1093/cje/ben009 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1093/cje/bey046 · DOI
- 10.1093/ct/qtx009 · DOI
- Peck J, Phillips R (2021) The platform conjuncture. Sociologica 14(3): 73–99.
- 10.4337/9781781005323 · DOI
- 10.1016/j.jfineco.2016.03.011 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1177/1461444816661553 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1111/meca.12251 · DOI
- 10.1177/1024529420932418 · DOI
- 10.4324/9780429341489 · DOI
- 10.1080/2157930X.2020.1855825 · DOI
- 10.1111/anti.12595 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1177/0003603X20934212 · DOI
- 10.1177/2F1024529420968221 · DOI
- 10.3917/jie.002.0035 · DOI
- Sholle D (2002) Disorganizing the ‘New Economy’. In: Elmer G (ed) Critical Perspectives on the Internet. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 3–26.
- 10.1080/13563467.2020.1858775 · DOI
- Srnicek N (2017) Platform Capitalism. Cambridge; Malden: Polity Press.
- Staab P (2019) Digitaler Kapitalismus. Markt und Herrschaft in der Ökonomie der Unknappheit. Berlin, Germany: Suhrkamp.
- 10.1080/17544750.2019.1657474 · DOI
- Tooze A (2021) Shutdown. How Covid Shook the World’s Economy. London, UK: Allen Lane.
- 10.1093/cje/bex085 · DOI · Paper page
- UNCTAD (2019) Digital Economy Report 2019. Value Creating and Capture: Implications for Developing Countries. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations.
- 10.1177/1461444820940293 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.2307/1883967 · DOI
- 10.1177/1035304618810987 · DOI
- 10.1257/jep.31.3.113 · DOI · Paper page
- Zuboff S (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. London, UK: Profile.
Cited by
Howcroft, D., Lucio, M. M., & Taylor, P. (2026) · New Technology, Work and Employment · doi:10.1111/ntwe.70049 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Klinge, T. J., Hendrikse, R., Fernandez, R., & Adriaans, I.
- Affiliations
- KU Leuven
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel
- Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)
- ORCID
- Klinge, Tobias J
- Venue
- Competition & Change
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2022-06-20
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 332-353
- ISSN
- 1024-5294
- 1477-2221
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 9
- Language
- en
- Licence
- journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
- Funders
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (G004920N, G079718N)
- H2020 European Research Council (683197)
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Augmenting digital monopolies: A corporate financialization perspective on the rise of Big Tech. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1177/10245294221105573
- The paper
- Klinge, T. J., Hendrikse, R., Fernandez, R., & Adriaans, I. (2023). Augmenting digital monopolies: A corporate financialization perspective on the rise of Big Tech. Competition & Change. https://doi.org/10.1177/10245294221105573
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
