By itself, the social quantification sector might be less economically significant than others and certainly not as significant as mainstream opinion would lead us to believe. But it plays a key role in the overall structuring of the Cloud Empire and the shaping of the social world around it. Its smaller economic role is more than made up for by its enormous influence on data processing and business models within the wider social order built around data colonialism.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 206