While enjoying global reach, most data empires are concentrated in the United States and China; other countries may contribute a few notable competitors (Spain’s travel website ODIGEO and Brazil’s e-commerce platform B2W, for example), but their international reach is much more limited. According to 2017 figures, three out of the top four revenue-earning IT companies in the world were US based, and one was Chinese; four out of the top five “traditional” media companies were also US based. The extractive reach of these companies may be global (more so for US companies at the moment, with China close behind), but it is somewhat misleading to think of them as “transnational” corporations: most of their decision power, employment, capital expenditures, and profits are kept close to home.

Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, loc. 333