"Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Thomas Ramge argue that big data will transform our economies on a fundamental level...Thought-provoking."—Science
"A thoughtful volume about the digital and data-driven future...Emphasizes the human choices and market and societal opportunities that data will enable."—Forbes
"Mayer-Schönberger and Ramge offer several intriguing ideas for limited the excesses of data-rich capitalism...These ideas won't get much of a hearing in today's Washington. But the shift toward an information-based economy will outlast the current administration. Eventually, this country will have a government interested in the best parts of modern capitalism while restraining the worst."—David Leonhardt, New York Times Book Review
"[One of] this year's best business books on technology and innovation"—James Surowiecki, Strategy + Business
"If this overall analysis is right, then we are going to have to start thinking more about such radical ideas. Data capitalism can deliver phenomenal services, as Amazon has shown. But it may also undermine some of the foundations on which our societies have been built."—Financial Times
"In 2013's Big Data, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger...described the necessity of using digital information to better connect with customers and train automated systems... Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data...expands that vision as dramatically as the title implies. Big data, the authors argue, is an omnipresent force that will create a new world—one in which large public companies may no longer be relevant at all."—Fortune
"Smoothly written and provocative, Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data is one of those rare pop future books that takes fundamental economics seriously... Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Thomas Ramge argue that the data's rise means money's decline, that meaningful economic growth overwhelmingly depends on data innovation, and that regulating market competition requires rethinking data access."—F&D
"A welcoming and comprehensible narrative featuring interesting profiles of key personalities driving the Big Data revolution...The future marketplace of goods, services, and ideas will benefit from a wide readership of this instructive study."—Booklist
"An unnerving yet plausible portrait of a future in which 'finance capitalism will be as old-fashioned as Flower Power.'"—Kirkus
"Anyone interested in the future of business should read this fascinating book as soon as possible. By now it is conventional wisdom—thanks in no small part to Mayer-Schönberger's previous book—that big data will transform the way firms operate. Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data makes a compelling case that it will change the nature of the market itself. With brilliant insights, it explains how the shift from simple price signaling to data-rich preference matching will determine the winners and losers of the 21st century economy, and thoughtfully outlines steps to curb the excesses of this new environment."—Kevin Werbach, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
"Reinventing Capitalism is a stunning and extremely provocative sketch of a world where data flows replace money flows and where data becomes a new kind of currency and provokes a new kind of capitalism. I highly recommend this astounding book that will help us all reimagine what capitalism could become in our new, data centric, AI based world."—John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corp; Former Director, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC); and Co-author of Design Unbound
"In the past 20 years, the big platform players of the digital economy have reaped huge profits. This book explains how we can turn data-richness into a win for everyone in society. A must-read for all who believe in competition and fair distribution of wealth."—Don Tapscott, author of The Digital Economy, Wikinomics, and Blockchain-Revolution
"That data are a valuable resource is widely recognized. But ideas on how best to organize a data economy are far and few between. This book offers plenty of food for thought."—Ludwig Siegele, Technology Editor of The Economist
"Digitalization is challenging us to re-think the future of our economy. This thought-provoking book provides excellent insights and guidance."—Henning Kagermann, former CEO of SAP and President of Acatech at the National Academy of Science and Engineering
"It's vogue today to proclaim the 'death of capitalism'—and yet the one truly global system is going through profound reinvention as a combination of technological forces reshape every aspect of our economic, political and social lives. This book is an absolutely essential guide to our collective digital future and equally importantly, a sensible manifesto to shape it for everyone's benefit."—Parag Khanna, author of Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization and Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State
"This refreshingly optimistic book, full of fascinating examples, shows how the digital age can lead to a future of data-rich markets that empower individuals and improve our lives in a diverse and inclusive society."—Urs Gasser, professor and executive director, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard
"For a generation, information technology has progressively driven down transaction-costs and displaced a universal tradeoff between richness and reach. This landmark book takes that logic to an entirely new plane, where the richness of data merges with the open and unbounded reach of markets. The possibility of data-rich markets is a vision that should challenge and inspire every corporate strategist and public policy maker."—Philip Evans, Senior Advisor at The Boston Consulting Group and BCG Fellow
2017-12-11
Another entry in the rapidly growing literature about how big data will soon transform capitalism as we know it.Expect "a fundamental reorganization of our economy, one that will be arguably as momentous as the Industrial Revolution," write Mayer-Schönberger (Internet Governance and Regulation/Univ. of Oxford; Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, 2009, etc.) and Economist contributing editor Ramge. In this thoughtful, provocative account of the coming impact of big data on human transactions, the authors note that economic activity has long been coordinated by markets and firms, with price serving as a convenient way to distill information about the value of goods and services. In the process, valuable details were lost. Now, as we enter a new age of data capitalism, digital innovations are allowing "massive amounts of data…[to] flow quickly, easily, and cheaply between transaction partners," helping them make better decisions. At the same time, we have the methods and tools to work with that data. This emerging economy has already given us such enterprises as BlaBlaCar, which helps millions of people share car rides each month. "From internet travel site Kayak to online investment company SigFig, to digital labor platform Upwork," write the authors, "more and more markets that use data to help participants find better matches are gaining traction and attention." Such improvements in transactions and efficiency will soon reshape markets of all kinds and allow us to address climate change and other complex issues. With price no longer the chief focus (machines will negotiate with sellers), there will be less need for money and banks (many will be gone by the late 2020s), and firms will have to reinvent the way they do business. The authors cover the inevitable upending of the labor market and the possible need for constant worker retraining or a universal basic income.An unnerving yet plausible portrait of a future in which "finance capitalism will be as old-fashioned as Flower Power."
