So here's my question: what's left for Big Tech to monetize? Many people already spend more time staring at screens (i.e. "leisure" consumption of media, entertainment, gaming, etc.) than they do at work or school, so in terms of time left to monetize, Hulu, Apple Music, Spotify, Netflix et al. are competing with sleep, meal preparation, reading books, conversation, dinner parties, intimacy and other traditional forms of non-media, non-screen uses of time.
As for privately owned capital/assets, there's a marketplace for sharing or renting privately owned consumer goods, but in a society awash in "stuff" it's difficult to monetize low-value, often informal activity.
So what happens to the lofty valuations currently enjoyed by Big Tech as the asymmetries of monetization start moving political gears and the gold-rush of monetizing engagement and privately owned assets runs out of new territories to conquer? What happens when diminishing returns set in as growth rates slow, marginal costs rise and political blowback builds momentum?
Just as there are only so many hours of the day consumers can stare at screens, so too are there limits on monetizing engagement and privately owned assets. What's left to monetize? It appears the answer is "very little."
