Does surveillance capitalism trigger the financial performance of information technology firms? A reflection from FAANG business models

Abstract

This paper maps the idea of surveillance capitalism of FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Net ix, and Google), which have capitalised on the behavioural surplus accumulated in their databases and how they utilise this data for future business models. The fundamental research question is how the data-driven models trigger these companies' future nancial performance and ensure sustainable growth. A triangulation approach was used to observe the world of surveillance capitalism through multiple lenses. The relative valuation models were used to substantiate the exponential growth of FAANG companies from 2006 to 2020. Financial indicators like the EPS, ROE, Market Capitalization and ROA were used to capture the growth of FAANG. Our undertaking shows that FAANG earns substantial revenue through datadriven business models catalysing the present companies' growth. This paper also illuminates the nudging effect created by behaviour-centric advertisements, which results in the brand value appreciation of FAANG. The article can be seen as a novel attempt as it empirically proves that FAANG has grown faster due to the power of surveillance capitalism. JEL Code: A130; O330: O380: K420 material (Zuboff, 2019). The companies are thus trading on the user's behavioural data, and the customers' privacy is at stake. Privacy is widely considered an inalienable right that contributes to the foundation of a liberal egalitarian society.Still, these data-driven companies often undervalue the con dentiality and security of the users (Allen, 1999). The business models of FAANG represent a new form of accumulation of behavioural data. Google is the pioneer; other companies like Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alibaba, and numerous rms have also emerged as key players in surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, 2019b). Mckinsey's ranking report shows FAANG has evolved into today's tech giant and holds top positions among companies based on market capitalisation [2]. Every other tech company that claims to offer personalised services in health, education, retail, and so on are manipulating our behavioural data and exerting some power on the users in the future.The growth potential of this surveillance capitalism is more in uential than managerial capitalism in all senses (Zuboff, 2015). Google's chief economist, Hal Varian (2014), supports this view and asserts that digital technologies can make transactions and interactions observable and controllable in real-time, ultimately lowering transaction costs and production costs, which might be the reason for the dominance of data governance. Furthermore, digitalisation also enables businesses to develop new markets and business models, helps rms expand the scope of their activities, and