The modern economy increasingly differs from the older model in which capital was understood primarily as a factory, land, machinery, warehouses, transport, a bank or a financial asset. None of these forms of capital has disappeared. Factories still produce goods. Banks still distribute money. Land, raw materials, logistics, energy and labour remain the foundation of the material economy.
But alongside them, a new form of capital has emerged.
This form does not always produce a commodity in the classical sense. It does not necessarily own a factory, manufacture the product itself, store goods in a warehouse or directly employ the person who provides the service. Its strength lies elsewhere: it creates the digital environment in which people see the world, receive information, communicate, compare alternatives, make decisions, buy, sell, work, argue, seek recognition, spend their time and develop habits.
This form of capital can be called cloud capital.
Cloud capital is not simply servers, applications, platforms, marketplaces, search engines, social networks, advertising systems, recommendation algorithms and digital services. These are only its visible shell. Its essential feature is the ability to gain access to human behaviour and gradually direct that behaviour.
In the past, capital mainly produced a commodity and then attempted to sell it to a person. Today, part of capital operates differently. It first shapes human behaviour, then influences choice, then creates demand, then directs money and ultimately changes the form of the entire system.
From the perspective of The Fundamental Law of Political Economy, this represents a fundamental shift.
The classical sequence is:
Personality → Behaviour → Choice → Demand → Money
Money → Form of the System
Cloud capital enters this sequence not at the level of the commodity and not even at the level of money. It enters earlier — at the level of behaviour. This is why its influence reaches deeper than ordinary advertising, ordinary trade or the traditional market.
If human behaviour is changed, choice can be changed. If choice is changed, demand can be changed. If demand is changed, the movement of money can be changed. If the movement of money is changed, the form of the system can be changed.
Cloud capital is therefore not merely another technological sector. It is a new form of power over human behaviour.
Capital No Longer Only Produces Things
During the industrial era, the nature of capital was comparatively clear and visible. A factory produced goods, machinery increased labour productivity, railways accelerated the delivery of raw materials and finished products, and banks provided credit for the expansion of economic activity. The owner of capital controlled the means of production, while the worker sold their labour. This gave rise to the familiar understanding of the economy: production creates a commodity, the commodity enters the market, the market connects it with a buyer, the buyer forms demand, demand brings money, and the return of money to production supports the development of the system.
The modern digital economy, however, is considerably more complex than this classical arrangement. Today, an increasingly important role is played not necessarily by the one who produces the commodity, but by the one who controls access to it. A platform may not create the product itself, yet it can determine the route by which the customer reaches it. It may not write an article, but it can decide which article the audience sees. It may not produce the news, but it can influence which story becomes widely known. It may not own the restaurant, apartment, shop, car or service, yet it can still control the digital gateway through which people reach them.
This is where the new nature of capital becomes visible. If the old factory produced a physical object, the modern platform increasingly produces not the commodity itself, but the route of human behaviour. It decides what will be shown first, what will be buried deeper, what will receive a high rating, what will be recommended, what will appear advantageous and what will disappear from view. As a result, the main product is no longer only the commodity itself; managed attention also becomes a product.
A person may feel that they are choosing freely. Formally, this is true: they press the button themselves, open the page, add an item to the basket, subscribe, read, watch, argue and complete the payment. But if the environment of choice has already been designed by the platform, that choice is no longer being made in an open space. It is being made within a specially constructed corridor.
The person does not see the entire market, but only a set of results. They do not see all available information, but only a feed. They are not presented with every possible alternative, but with the options the system has decided to display. In other words, they do not encounter neutral reality, but a reality that has already passed through the filters of an algorithm, commercial interest, an advertising model, personalisation and the logic of retaining attention.
This creates a new form of power. It does not resemble the direct coercion of the past. Nobody openly forces a person to buy, watch, read, agree or return to an application. Instead, the person is gently guided towards a desired action through convenience, habit, notifications, recommendations, ratings, discounts, social proof and the constant impression that the next step is only one touch away.
This is precisely why cloud capital is so powerful. It rarely looks like power in the traditional sense. More often, it looks like a convenient and useful service. Yet that appearance is the source of its deepest strength.
Behaviour Becomes a Raw Material
In the classical economy, the principal resources were material and labour-based: oil, gas, metal, timber, grain, cotton, land, water, energy and working time. The digital economy has added another resource to this list — human behaviour. This does not refer merely to the fact that a user is present online, but to the entire range of actions from which economic value can be extracted.
Almost every action taken in the digital environment leaves a trace. A platform records where the user stopped, what they scrolled past, which item held their attention, what they opened and closed, which product they viewed but did not buy, what they returned to later, which article they read to the end, which video they watched for longer and which subject provoked a particularly strong emotional reaction. Purchases are not the only useful signals. Pauses, repeated views, irritation, trust, interest and refusal also matter. All of this is converted into data.
Data alone, however, is not yet the main source of power. Its true value appears when information about past behaviour is used to influence future behaviour. First, the person acts within the digital environment. The platform records those actions, compares them, constructs a model of probable reactions and uses that model to alter the environment itself. It can change the order of display, the recommendations, the priorities in search results, visual emphasis, notifications, discounts or the sequence of offers. As a result, the user’s next action becomes more predictable and more profitable for the platform.
This is where the dividing line appears between ordinary trade and the new digital logic. In a traditional exchange, the seller could only form a general impression of the buyer’s tastes. A platform knows considerably more. It sees not only an interest in a product, but also the speed of reaction, the times at which the person is active, their tendency towards impulsive decisions, emotionally sensitive subjects, habitual search patterns, periods of fatigue, moments of anxiety, the way they compare alternatives and the likelihood that they will return to an unfinished action. The person in the digital environment therefore becomes more than a buyer; they become the object of continuous analysis and prediction.
This does not mean that the individual loses all freedom. Personality retains the ability to doubt, refuse, change habits, assess information critically and leave an imposed scenario. But as the system becomes more precise in its understanding of behaviour, preserving independence requires greater internal effort. Under cloud capital, the question is therefore no longer simply what a person wants to buy, but how to make that person want a particular option at a particular moment, within a particular environment and through a particular platform.
This is why the modern digital economy is increasingly becoming not merely an economy of commodities, but an economy of behaviour.
The Digital Environment Is Not Neutral
One of the main errors in the modern understanding of digital technology is the belief that the digital environment is neutral. It often appears that a search engine simply finds information, a social network merely displays content, a marketplace only offers products, an application simply performs a useful function and a platform merely connects people. In reality, the digital environment is never neutral, because it does more than transmit information: it organises the entire process of perception, choice and action.
Any ordering of search results is already a decision about what will be shown first and what will appear later. Every recommendation directs attention. Every rating affects trust. Notifications compete for the user’s return. Even apparently technical details — buttons, colour accents, prompts, autoplay, countdowns, pop-up windows and personalised selections — influence human behaviour. Together, they create not merely an interface, but a particular environment for decision-making.
The person therefore does not encounter a completely free and unstructured choice. The choice has already been placed within an architecture designed in advance. This architecture determines which options become visible, which remain hidden, which appear reliable, which seem urgent, which provoke an emotional response and which require more effort and are therefore less likely to be chosen.
This is particularly important when analysing demand. Demand does not arise only from an internal need. It is formed through the interaction between Personality and the surrounding environment. If the digital environment continually pushes a person towards particular actions, demand begins to reflect not only the person’s genuine need but also the strength and direction of external influence. In the digital economy, demand therefore increasingly becomes not merely an expression of need, but also the result of a prearranged scenario.
A person, for example, may not initially intend to make a purchase. The platform shows a product at a moment of fatigue, adds a discount, displays reviews, creates a sense of limited availability, reminds the person about the product later, presents similar alternatives, simplifies payment and removes almost every obstacle between desire and action. Formally, the final decision is still made by the person. Systemically, however, the choice has been prepared in advance.
This is why modern demand can no longer be analysed only through price and income. To understand how it arises, it is necessary to examine human behaviour, the structure of attention, the design of the digital environment and the route through which a decision is reached. Cloud capital changes not only what a person buys. It changes the situation in which the purchase begins to appear natural, convenient and almost self-evident.
From Behaviour to Choice
Behaviour is the connecting link between Personality and Choice. A person may have values, goals, fears, weaknesses, habits and a particular understanding of themselves, but until these internal elements are expressed through concrete behaviour, the economy cannot directly convert them into demand and money.
Cloud capital operates precisely at this level. It does not always change Personality directly. Its influence is subtler: it changes the mode of behaviour. It affects how a person distributes attention, how quickly they react, how much time they spend in the digital environment, how they compare alternatives, how they wait for confirmation, how they interpret the opinions of others and how they relate to their own desires.
If a person constantly receives rapid stimuli, they gradually become accustomed to a short reaction cycle. If a feed continually presents emotional provocations, the person begins to respond more impulsively and less reflectively. If a platform constantly supplies ready-made alternatives, the person practises independent searching less and less. If a purchase becomes too easy, Choice becomes less conscious. If social approval is measured through visible numbers, the person begins to adapt their behaviour more frequently to the reactions of others.
The platform therefore does not merely serve existing behaviour. It gradually forms it.
The danger lies in the gradual nature of this process. A person rarely notices the precise moment when their habits have already changed. They simply begin to open the application more frequently, become irritated more quickly, read fewer long texts, compare themselves with others more often, buy unnecessary items more easily, react to provocation more rapidly and find it harder to preserve a pause between desire and action.
When Behaviour changes, Choice changes with it. The person begins to choose not only from a stable internal position, but from a state of permanent digital pressure. Choice becomes faster, shorter, more impulsive and more dependent on an external signal.
Within The Fundamental Law of Political Economy, this has direct significance: if cloud capital influences Behaviour, it inevitably influences Choice. If Choice changes, Demand changes. When Demand changes, the movement of Money changes, and Money then begins to create a new Form of the System.
From Choice to Demand
Demand is usually understood as the desire to purchase a product or service supported by the ability to pay. In the modern digital environment, however, this explanation is no longer sufficient, because desire itself is increasingly shaped before the person has had time to recognise it clearly.
A platform does not merely display a product. It creates a scenario around that product and connects the purchase with a lifestyle, status, group belonging, a sense of advantage, fear of missing out, the promise of relief or a rapid emotional reward. As a result, the person does not buy only an object or a service. Through the purchase, they may be attempting to reduce anxiety, confirm their own importance, restore a sense of control, compensate for fatigue or feel part of a particular environment.
This kind of influence existed before digital platforms, but cloud capital has made it more precise, continuous and personal. Traditional advertising usually addressed a large group of people with the same message. A digital platform can choose a different method of influence for each individual. One person is shown a rational explanation, another a discount, a third the opinion of the majority, a fourth the limited availability of the offer, and a fifth a sense of uniqueness. The platform considers not only what to show, but also the moment at which the person is most likely to react.
Demand is therefore increasingly formed not only as an expression of an existing need, but also as a result of how the digital environment is organised. The user does not see particular products, services, opinions and offers by accident. The platform determines their order, visibility, presentation and frequency of repetition in advance. One option consequently begins to appear natural and advantageous, while others may never enter the person’s field of attention.
This does not mean that genuine needs disappear. People still need housing, food, transport, security, healthcare, education, work, relationships and rest. But the platform gains the ability to direct even these genuine needs in ways that benefit its own model. A person genuinely needs food, but the digital environment determines which restaurants they see. They genuinely need a product, but the marketplace determines which offers appear first. They genuinely need information, but the algorithm distributes its visibility. They genuinely need communication, but the social network establishes which formats receive more attention and approval.
A real need therefore passes through a digital filter. As a result, Demand begins to reflect not only what the person genuinely needs, but also how the platform has organised their attention, perception and comparison of available options.
From Demand to Money
Once Demand has been formed, the movement of Money begins. This is the point at which cloud capital reveals its main economic power: it earns not only from the sale of a product or service, but also from controlling the route by which the person reaches the purchase.
The platform becomes an intermediary between seller and buyer, but its role extends far beyond ordinary intermediation. It determines who receives visibility, which offer appears first, which product is recommended, who gains access to the audience and how much that access will cost. The platform can therefore extract money from several sources at once: it can charge the seller a commission, sell advertising, provide paid promotion, collect subscription payments, process transactions, sell access to analytics, use data and offer additional tools for increasing visibility.
In the traditional economy, the physical location of a shop was extremely important. A successful street, a constant flow of people, a visible shop window, a recognised district and a convenient entrance could directly affect the number of customers. In the digital economy, this function is performed by placement in search results, a position within recommendations, ratings, product pages, visibility in the feed and algorithmic exposure.
Access to Demand therefore depends increasingly not only on the quality of the product, its price or the producer’s reputation, but also on the producer’s position inside the platform. A company may produce a high-quality product, but if the offer receives no visibility, the buyer may never discover it. An author may create strong material, but without algorithmic support it may receive little attention. A small producer may be honest and efficient, but still remain dependent on commissions, ratings, reviews and paid promotion.
The platform consequently gains the ability to influence where Money will flow. It does not necessarily take all of the income for itself, but it controls the conditions under which the seller gains access to the buyer. The more dependent a business becomes on the platform, the easier it is for the platform to change the commission, increase advertising costs, alter the rules of promotion or impose new requirements on participants.
At first, a platform may offer simple and relatively inexpensive access to an audience. This appears advantageous to the business: it does not have to build a complex customer-acquisition system, create payment infrastructure or organise promotion independently. But as buyers become accustomed to searching for goods and services only within the platform, the seller’s position changes. The seller is no longer simply using a convenient channel; it has become dependent on that channel.
In this situation, the platform earns not only from the transaction itself. It receives money for visibility, for a higher position in search results, for access to data, for returning the customer, for advertising and for maintaining a presence within the digital space. The same Demand can generate income for the platform at several different stages.
Cloud capital therefore gradually concentrates Money around digital intermediaries. Money is received not only by those who produce a commodity, provide a service or create content, but also by those who control access to the buyer. The more purchases, services, information and attention pass through a small number of large platforms, the greater their influence over the distribution of Money.
The main economic power of cloud capital therefore lies not only in the size of its audience. It lies in its ability to control the route from formed Demand to Money.
The Platform Becomes the Market
The most important change is that the digital platform gradually ceases to be merely a tool helping market participants find one another. It begins to perform the functions of the market itself and to establish the conditions under which that market operates.
When a person searches for a product not among numerous independent sellers but within a single marketplace, the marketplace determines what they see and in what order. When information is searched for primarily through one search engine, that search engine becomes the principal gateway to knowledge. When news arrives through a personalised feed, that feed begins to shape the informational and cultural environment. When a business receives a significant share of its customers through one platform, that platform becomes a separate economic territory for the business.
Within this territory, the platform’s rules begin to function as market rules. It determines who appears higher and who remains invisible, how ratings are calculated, which reviews are treated as significant, how trust is distributed, how disputes are resolved, what the commission will be, what may lead to restrictions and which actions provide an advantage in search results.
These decisions can no longer be treated as merely technical settings. They directly determine the position of the seller, author, producer or service provider. A change in an algorithm can increase the flow of customers or almost entirely remove a business from view. A change in a rating can strengthen trust or destroy it. A new commission can allow an activity to remain profitable or make it economically unviable.
At the same time, these rules are not created collectively by all market participants. Users, small businesses and producers do not normally determine the structure of the platform or participate in its main decisions. The rules are established by the owner of the platform, primarily in accordance with its own economic model.
Even genuinely useful platform functions are therefore integrated into a broader commercial logic. A convenient interface helps retain the user. Personalisation makes their actions more predictable. Recommendations increase the time spent inside the system. Ratings manage trust. Notifications bring attention back. Discounts accelerate decisions. Simple payment reduces the distance between desire and expenditure.
The platform consequently becomes more than a place where an individual purchase or search takes place. It becomes a permanent environment in which the person receives information, compares alternatives, makes a Choice and spends Money.
A major digital platform is therefore no longer an ordinary company operating within an existing market. It creates the market space itself, establishes its rules and controls the position of participants within that space.
Why This Is Not Ordinary Advertising
Cloud capital cannot be reduced to ordinary advertising. Advertising existed long before digital platforms: newspapers, radio, television, billboards, catalogues, promotions, sponsorship and political campaigning have always attempted to influence human decisions. Classical advertising, however, remained a separate message, whereas the digital platform becomes the environment within which the person receives information, compares alternatives and makes decisions.
Advertising invited the person to pay attention to a particular product or idea. A platform operates more deeply: it determines what enters the field of attention at all, in what order it appears and which alternatives remain invisible. Advertising primarily worked with broad audiences, using general characteristics such as age, sex, income, interests or location. A platform analyses the Behaviour of a specific person in real time.
It sees when the user is active, what holds their attention, where they hesitate, what they return to, what they compare, which subjects provoke an emotional response and the moment at which they are ready to proceed to payment. Influence therefore becomes not only personalised but continuously adjusted according to the user’s Behaviour.
This is why a platform does not merely display advertising. It creates a personalised environment in which a particular Choice becomes more visible, more convenient and more likely. The person may not feel pressure because the influence does not look like an order or direct persuasion. It appears through convenience, recommendations, a familiar interface, automatic prompts and a reduction in the number of steps required to complete the action.
This is the central difference. Advertising influenced the person from outside. The platform gradually becomes part of the person’s everyday environment. It accompanies the search, communication, consumption of information, comparison of offers and the moment of purchase itself.
The fewer obstacles remain between desire and action, the less time the person has for pause and reflection. Ordinary advertising could create interest, but a certain distance remained between interest and purchase. Cloud capital can reduce that route to a few seconds, converting an emerging reaction almost immediately into an action.
As a result, the nature of Choice changes. When the pause between desire and purchase disappears, it becomes more difficult to distinguish a genuine need from a momentary impulse.
Personality Under Pressure
For us, analysis always begins with Personality.
Personality is not an abstract concept or a philosophical addition to economics. It is the original centre from which Behaviour is formed. The stability of Personality determines the extent to which a person can preserve independence, withstand external pressure and distinguish their own decision from a reaction produced by the environment.
Cloud capital does not exert influence only through advertising, prices or offers. Its influence begins earlier — with the internal condition of the person. The digital environment gradually changes the rhythm of perception, the nature of reaction and the ability to maintain attention.
- It influences attention.
- It influences anxiety.
- It influences self-esteem.
- It influences the habit of immediate reaction.
- It influences the fear of missing something important.
- It influences dependence on the judgement of others.
- It influences the ability to wait.
- It influences the ability to compare.
- It influences the ability to search for information independently.
- It influences the ability not to react.
Each of these changes is reflected in Behaviour. A person whose attention is constantly fragmented finds it harder to understand complex information and moves more quickly towards a simple decision. A person experiencing anxiety responds more readily to a promise of security. A person with unstable self-esteem seeks external confirmation of their importance more frequently. A person accustomed to immediate stimuli finds it more difficult to tolerate waiting, long-term education, consistent work and a complex path towards a result.
The ability not to react is particularly important. Independence is expressed not only through action, but also through the ability to stop, preserve a pause, verify information, reject an imposed offer and resist the first emotional impulse. It is precisely this pause that the digital environment attempts to reduce.
Cloud capital is interested not simply in human attention, but in the person’s continuous readiness to react. The faster the reaction arises, the easier it is to measure, predict and use. The digital system therefore encourages not a stable condition of Personality, but repeatable Behaviour.
This is one of the principal dangers of cloud capital.
- It may strengthen dependence rather than independence.
- Anxiety rather than stability.
- Impulsiveness rather than awareness.
- The habit of reacting rather than the ability to choose.
- A need for continuous external confirmation rather than internal support.
Influence on the internal condition of the person is therefore gradually transformed into influence on their Behaviour.
Demand Without Development
Not every form of Demand contributes to the development of the person, production or society. The digital economy makes particularly visible the difference between Demand that creates long-term value and Demand that provides a platform with an immediate reaction and immediate payment.
TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are interested in keeping a person moving continuously from one short video to the next. The more clips the person watches, the more advertising the platform can display and the more data it can collect about their reactions. Netflix automatically offers the next film or episode. Spotify creates personalised selections to keep the person listening within the service. Amazon displays similar products, sponsored positions and offers intended to lead to another purchase. Temu and Shein use continuously changing products, discounts and notifications to encourage the person to return to the application more frequently.
Food-delivery services operate in a similar way. Glovo, Wolt, Uber Eats and Deliveroo may remind the person about dinner, offer a discount, provide free delivery or suggest repeating a previous order. The genuine need for food exists, but the platform seeks to direct that need through its own application and receive a commission from the restaurant, courier or buyer.
In all these cases, rapid Demand is particularly valuable. The person sees the offer, reacts and pays immediately. Almost no time remains between desire and purchase. This kind of Demand is convenient for the platform because it can be measured through views, clicks, additions to the basket, orders, subscriptions and repeat payments.
Rapid Demand, however, does not necessarily create a strong economy. A million additional views on TikTok do not automatically produce new knowledge. A million rapid purchases on a marketplace do not necessarily contribute to the development of European production. An increase in orders through a delivery application may increase the platform’s commission income without improving the position of the restaurant or courier.
Long-term development requires a different kind of Demand: Demand for education, professional training, high-quality healthcare, secure housing, European production, infrastructure, scientific research, independent technologies and complex information. This kind of Demand is more difficult to create and takes longer to convert into Money. The result is not delivered within a few seconds. Education requires years. Infrastructure requires major investment. Industrial development requires equipment, specialists and long-term planning.
Cloud capital therefore more readily supports what can be converted into action and payment quickly. TikTok gains more from another hour of viewing than from the person switching off the application and beginning to study. Amazon gains more from another purchase than from the person deciding to buy nothing. Instagram benefits from the user’s continuous return, not from their ability to function calmly without external confirmation.
Demand therefore begins to move towards what is easier to display, accelerate and monetise. As a result, society may spend increasingly more on impulsive consumption, entertainment, subscriptions and digital services, while investing less in education, production, healthcare and long-term stability.
Money Creates the Form of the System
Once Demand is converted into Money, the movement does not end.
Personality → Behaviour → Choice → Demand → Money
Money begins to create the Form of the System.
Money → Form of the System
When a European company pays Google for search advertising, that Money strengthens Google as one of the principal gateways to information and products. When a business pays Meta to promote content on Facebook and Instagram, it strengthens the system in which Meta distributes the visibility of publications and advertising offers. When a seller pays Amazon a commission and then pays again to promote a product, that seller strengthens Amazon not only as a shop, but also as the infrastructure controlling access to the buyer.
Apple and Google receive Money through the App Store and Google Play because developers depend on access to smartphone owners. Booking.com and Airbnb receive commissions because hotels and property owners depend on their audiences. Uber and Bolt receive part of the price of each journey because drivers and passengers find one another through their applications. YouTube receives advertising income because creators provide videos and viewers spend time within the platform.
This Money does not simply disappear. Google invests it in search technologies, artificial intelligence, cloud services, advertising infrastructure and devices. Amazon expands its logistics, AWS, advertising tools and its own services. Meta develops recommendation algorithms, advertising systems, Instagram, WhatsApp and data-processing infrastructure. Apple strengthens the connection between the iPhone, the App Store, payments, cloud services and subscriptions.
Money therefore creates a Form of the System in which several companies control the principal gateways:
- Google — the gateway to information and search.
- YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram — the gateway to mass attention.
- Amazon — the gateway to a significant share of digital trade.
- Apple App Store and Google Play — the gateway to mobile applications.
- Booking.com and Airbnb — the gateway to tourism Demand.
- Uber, Bolt and delivery applications — the gateway to particular types of services.
The Form of the System is expressed not only in the size of these companies. It is expressed in the rules that other participants are forced to follow. A creator must take YouTube’s requirements into account. A seller must comply with Amazon’s rules. A developer must pass Apple’s or Google’s review. A hotel must maintain its rating on Booking.com. A restaurant must consider its position inside a delivery application.
The reverse movement then begins:
Form of the System → Demand → Choice → Behaviour → Personality
The Form of the System created through the Money of advertisers, sellers and users returns to the person. It determines what they see, which products are recommended, which applications they can install, which hotels they find, which news they receive and which Behaviour is continually encouraged.
A Concrete Risk for Europe
Europeans use digital infrastructure every day, and a significant part of that infrastructure belongs to companies based outside the European Union.
The search for information most often begins with Google. Videos are watched through YouTube and TikTok. Communication and the distribution of publications take place through Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Mobile applications are installed through Apple App Store and Google Play. Company cloud infrastructure is often hosted by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. Goods are sold through Amazon. Accommodation and hotels are booked through Booking.com and Airbnb. Journeys are ordered through Uber or Bolt.
The problem is not that Europeans use foreign services. An open Europe should not reject useful technologies solely because of the country in which a company is registered. The problem arises when Europe lacks meaningful control over the infrastructure through which European Behaviour, Choice, Demand and Money pass.
A European hotel may be located in Italy, Greece or Latvia, pay local taxes, employ European workers and purchase European products. Yet access to its customer may depend on Booking.com or Airbnb. A European manufacturer may produce goods in France, Germany or Poland, but in order to reach a buyer it may have to purchase advertising from Google and Meta or sell through Amazon.
A European application may be created in Spain or Finland, but its access to users depends on Apple App Store and Google Play. A European media organisation may produce its own articles, but a significant proportion of its audience may arrive through Google, Facebook or YouTube. A change in the algorithm of a single company can rapidly reduce traffic, sales or reach.
Europe therefore produces goods, services, articles, music, videos and software, but it does not always control the digital route between the producer and the person.
This means that part of European Money is regularly directed into the infrastructure of Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, TikTok, Airbnb and other large systems. This Money makes the platforms stronger, improves their algorithms and increases the dependence of European businesses on their rules.
The risk for Europe does not arise from the existence of these companies, but from the absence of comparable European digital independence. Europe may have a strong industrial market while remaining dependent on Google for search. It may possess a developed culture while depending on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for distribution. It may have millions of small companies while depending on Amazon, Booking.com and Meta for access to the buyer.
A strong, united Europe must control not only territory, currency, legislation and production. It must also control at least part of the infrastructure through which a European person sees information, makes a Choice, creates Demand and directs Money.
Why Fines for Google, Meta and Apple Are Not Enough
The European Union already regulates digital companies. The GDPR establishes requirements for the processing of personal data. The Digital Services Act regulates the responsibilities of major online platforms. The Digital Markets Act restricts certain practices by companies that control key digital markets.
These rules are necessary. Without them, Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, TikTok and other large platforms would have even greater freedom to use data, close markets and impose conditions without external limits.
But regulation alone does not create a European alternative.
A fine imposed on Google does not create a European search engine of comparable scale. Restrictions imposed on Meta do not create a European social network capable of connecting hundreds of millions of users. Requirements imposed on Apple do not create a European mobile operating system or an independent application store. Rules imposed on Amazon do not create a European commercial and logistics infrastructure accessible to small businesses across every European country.
Even if Meta fully complies with data-processing rules, Facebook and Instagram still control the visibility of publications. Even if Google explains part of the principles behind its operation, it still determines the order of search results. Even if Amazon complies with European legislation, sellers remain dependent on its ratings, commissions, advertising and access to buyers.
Regulation can reduce abuses, but it does not remove the underlying dependence.
In this position, Europe resembles a tenant that imposes strict rules on the owner of a building but does not own the building itself. It can demand compliance with safety standards, transparency and user rights, but the key infrastructure remains in the hands of a private company.
Laws and fines alone are therefore insufficient. Europe needs its own search technologies, cloud capacity, advertising systems, content-distribution platforms, application stores, digital payments, marketplaces and tools connecting producers directly with buyers.
This does not mean creating state-controlled copies of Google or Facebook. It means ensuring that European businesses and European citizens have a genuine alternative. If no alternative exists, formal freedom of Choice remains limited.
Google may comply with European rules, but the person still begins the search with Google. Meta may comply with the law, but a business still buys advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Apple may change particular App Store conditions, but the European developer still depends on access to the iPhone.
Regulation protects the person inside the existing Form of the System. But in order to change the Form of the System itself, Europe must create its own digital infrastructure.
How Platforms Make Small Businesses Dependent
The dependence of small businesses on digital platforms is particularly visible.
A small hotel in Italy may have high-quality rooms, professional staff and returning customers. But if most tourists search for accommodation through Booking.com, the hotel is forced to be present there. It must maintain a rating, respond quickly to requests, comply with the platform’s rules and surrender part of its income as commission.
An apartment owner may use Airbnb because finding an international customer independently is considerably more difficult. But together with access to the audience, the owner accepts Airbnb’s rules, review system, order of listing visibility and dispute-resolution conditions.
A small restaurant may depend on Google Maps, Tripadvisor, Glovo, Wolt, Uber Eats or Deliveroo. If the restaurant appears poorly on the map, has a low rating or is placed near the bottom of a delivery application’s list, some customers will simply never see it. The restaurant begins to work not only on the quality of its food, but also on ratings, order-confirmation speed, the presentation of its profile and the requirements of the algorithm.
A small producer sells through Amazon, Etsy or another marketplace. In order for the product to be seen, the producer must prepare the product page correctly, maintain reviews, meet deadlines, purchase promotion and take the rules of the search results into account. If Amazon changes its algorithm or increases the cost of advertising, the producer must adapt.
A local shop advertises through Google and Instagram. When advertising costs increase, the seller must pay more to reach the same customer. If the seller stops advertising, visibility may fall sharply.
An author, journalist or small media organisation may depend on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Google Search. Even a large subscriber base does not guarantee that everyone will see a publication. The platform decides how many people will receive it. To gain additional reach, the author or media organisation may have to pay for promotion.
Small businesses therefore gradually lose their direct relationship with the buyer. In the past, a customer might know a particular hotel, restaurant, shop or specialist. Today, the customer first opens Booking.com, Google Maps, Amazon, Instagram or a delivery application. The platform becomes the first point of contact, while the business itself becomes only one option within the platform’s list.
This changes the position of every participant. The restaurant produces the food, but the application controls access to the order. The hotel provides the room, but Booking.com controls a significant share of tourism Demand. The producer creates the product, but Amazon controls visibility. The author creates the content, but YouTube or Facebook distributes attention.
The small business remains formally independent, but increasingly operates on territory whose rules are established by another company.
How Cloud Capital Changes Culture
The influence of cloud capital on culture can be clearly seen through YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Spotify and Netflix.
YouTube evaluates whether a person clicked on a video, how long they watched it, at what point they left and whether they moved on to another piece of content. A creator therefore begins to choose a sharper title, a more noticeable thumbnail and a faster introduction. If the first seconds do not retain the viewer, the video may receive fewer recommendations.
TikTok is built around short videos and the continuous transition to the next clip. The creator must capture attention almost immediately. A long introduction, a complex explanation or the slow development of an idea may lead the user simply to scroll past. Content therefore adapts to the speed of reaction.
Instagram Reels operates in a similar way. A photographer, artist, journalist, musician or teacher must think not only about the quality of the material, but also about whether it can produce an immediate response. A complex work becomes a short fragment. A detailed analysis becomes a few sharp statements. A long story becomes a series of clips.
Spotify influences the music a person hears through automatic selections and popular playlists. A musician must not only create a work, but also enter the recommendation system. Netflix determines the visibility of films and series through the arrangement of the main page, personalised rows and automatic suggestions for the next viewing.
Algorithms therefore begin to influence not only the distribution of culture, but also its form.
A creator thinks in advance about YouTube’s requirements. A musician considers listener Behaviour on Spotify. A director understands that a Netflix viewer may switch quickly. A creator of short videos structures the material around TikTok or Instagram Reels.
A platform does not directly order a person to shorten a text, simplify an idea or intensify conflict. But it creates conditions under which short, emotional and easily measurable material has a greater chance of being distributed.
This is particularly important for Europe, where numerous languages, cultural traditions, local media organisations, theatres, publishers and educational projects exist. A small Latvian, Portuguese or Slovenian project competes for attention not only with local creators, but also with a global stream of content on the largest platforms.
If European culture becomes fully dependent on the algorithms of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Spotify and Netflix, these companies gain the ability to influence what becomes visible, popular and economically viable.
How Platforms Change Political Behaviour
We do not examine this subject through support for any particular party, state or ideology. But the influence of Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and other platforms on political Behaviour cannot be ignored.
A person often learns about events not from the full range of available sources. They open Facebook, TikTok, YouTube or Google and see what has appeared in the search results or recommendations. Two people living in the same city may receive entirely different pictures of what is happening because their past Behaviour has led the algorithms to different conclusions.
One user reacts more frequently to material about migration, another to war, a third to economic problems and a fourth to corruption. The platform notices this reaction and displays more similar content. Gradually, one subject begins to appear to the person as the main problem facing the whole of society, while another user may barely see it at all.
Facebook and Instagram allow political organisations and public campaigns to purchase advertising directed at specific audience groups. YouTube recommends the next videos on the basis of previous viewing. TikTok rapidly restructures the feed around the person’s reactions. Google determines which material appears among the first search results.
At the same time, the algorithm does not necessarily have to support a particular ideology. Its objective may be simpler: to retain attention. If outrage, fear or conflict causes a person to watch for longer, comment more frequently and return to the platform, the system receives an economic benefit from emotional content.
Political conflict therefore becomes part of the business model.
The user argues. The platform receives activity. The creator of provocative material receives views. The advertiser receives an audience. The system records even more data about Behaviour.
Public discussion consequently begins to depend on the rules of private companies. Facebook decides which post receives reach. YouTube decides which video is recommended. TikTok determines which clip enters the mass stream. Google determines which source appears first.
For a strong, united Europe, this creates a concrete problem. A common European space cannot be built if citizens of different countries — and even residents of the same city — exist inside incompatible information feeds formed by the algorithms of several companies.
What Europe’s Digital Sovereignty Means in Practice
Digital sovereignty is not a slogan or a demand to ban Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft or TikTok.
In practice, it means Europe’s ability not to depend entirely on these companies in key digital areas.
- In search, Europe should not depend completely on Google.
- In social communication, it should not depend entirely on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok and YouTube.
- In mobile infrastructure, it should not depend only on Apple iOS and Google Android.
- In application distribution, it should not depend only on the App Store and Google Play.
- In cloud computing, it should not depend only on Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
- In online advertising, it should not depend only on Google and Meta.
- In digital trade, it should not depend only on Amazon and other major marketplaces.
- In tourism, it should not depend only on Booking.com and Airbnb.
- In urban services, it should not depend only on Uber, Bolt, Glovo, Wolt and similar applications.
Genuine digital sovereignty means that a European developer can create an application and reach users without complete dependence on Apple and Google. A European shop can find a buyer without being required to pay Google, Meta or Amazon. A European hotel can accept bookings without permanent dependence on Booking.com and Airbnb. A European media organisation can reach its audience without the risk of disappearing after a change in a Facebook or Google algorithm.
Europe needs its own digital infrastructure: cloud capacity, payment systems, search, identification, advertising tools, application stores, marketplaces, social services and systems for distributing information.
This does not mean creating a single state platform to replace all others. Such a system could itself become a new form of control. It means creating numerous European companies operating under common rules, capable of competing with one another and providing the person with genuine Choice.
A strong Europe should not have to ask Google, Meta, Apple or Amazon for permission to reach its own citizens and its own market. It must possess its own channels through which European Personality, Behaviour, Choice, Demand and Money remain part of the European Form of the System.
Why the Convenience of Google, Amazon and TikTok Does Not Automatically Mean Development
Modern digital companies are often evaluated in terms of convenience.
Google finds information quickly. Amazon allows a product to be ordered within minutes. TikTok instantly presents interesting videos. Instagram displays publications from acquaintances and creators. Uber helps a person order a car. Booking.com simplifies the search for a hotel. Netflix proposes a film without requiring the person to study catalogues independently.
All of these functions are genuinely useful. But convenience alone does not mean development.
Amazon may make a purchase faster, but a rapid purchase is not always necessary for the person. TikTok may select videos with great precision, but the accuracy of the recommendation may result in the person spending several hours inside the application. YouTube may automatically play the next video, but this does not mean that the next video is useful. Booking.com may simplify a booking while simultaneously increasing a hotel’s dependence on commissions and ratings.
Technology may perform the platform’s task efficiently, but that task does not necessarily coincide with the interests of the person or society.
The TikTok algorithm is effective when the person remains in the application for a long time. Google’s advertising system is effective when the user clicks on a paid offer. Amazon is effective when the person purchases more and more frequently. Instagram is effective when the user constantly checks reactions and new publications.
For the person, however, development may mean the opposite: the ability to stop, compare, reject what is unnecessary, preserve attention, choose an independent shop, read a complex text or spend time outside the digital environment.
Cloud capital therefore cannot be evaluated only through speed, capitalisation, user numbers and algorithmic precision. It is necessary to examine the Behaviour it forms, the Choice it makes more probable, the Demand it creates, where it directs Money and what Form of the System that Money subsequently creates.
Technology contributes to development when it strengthens Personality, rather than merely increasing the number of reactions inside an application.
The Main Conflict: The Human Being or Managed Behaviour
For Facebook and Instagram, the person is simultaneously a user, a creator of publications, a participant in communication and a source of data for Meta’s advertising system. Every view, reaction, comment, subscription and pause in the feed helps the platform determine more precisely which content retains the attention of a particular person.
For YouTube, the fact that a video was viewed is not the only important factor. The system records whether the person clicked on the video, how long they watched it, where they stopped, which creator they returned to and which video they opened next. This data is used to form new recommendations and increase the time spent on the platform.
TikTok analyses even the shortest actions: whether the person stopped at a video or immediately scrolled past, watched it to the end or several times, opened the comments, visited the creator’s page or continued scrolling. On the basis of these reactions, the platform continually reconstructs the personalised feed.
Amazon sees search requests, viewed products, comparisons, unfinished purchases and order history. This data allows it not only to display similar products, but also to identify the moment at which the probability of the next purchase is highest.
Google receives information about the person’s intention directly through the search request. When the user enters the name of a product, service, illness, city, profession or financial product, they tell the system what interests them at that moment. This intention becomes the basis for search results and the display of paid advertising.
Booking.com and Airbnb see where the person intends to travel, for which dates, which price level they are considering, which properties they open and what they compare. Uber, Bolt, Glovo and Wolt know where the person is located, where they are travelling, what they order and at which times they most frequently use the service.
Apple and Google control the mobile environment through which applications gain access to smartphone owners. A developer cannot simply offer a programme directly to every iPhone or Android user. The developer must comply with App Store or Google Play rules, pass a review, use approved methods of distribution and accept the conditions established by the platform.
Data itself is necessary for search, navigation, recommendations, payment and protection against fraud. The problem does not arise from the mere fact that data is collected, but from the economic objective for which it is used.
If the income of YouTube, TikTok, Facebook or Instagram depends on the duration of attention, their systems will search for ways to increase viewing time and the number of reactions. If Google receives Money from an advertising click, it is interested in identifying the user’s intention precisely. If Amazon receives income from purchases and product promotion, it is interested in shortening the route between search and payment. If Booking.com receives a commission from a booking, it is interested in ensuring that the person completes the booking within the platform.
The main conflict therefore does not exist between the person and technology as such. It exists between two possible roles for the person within the digital system.
- In the first role, the person remains a subject. Technology helps them receive information, compare alternatives, understand the conditions and independently make a Choice.
- In the second role, the person is treated as a predictable sequence of reactions. Their Behaviour is studied, divided into signals and used to make the next Choice more likely to bring Money to the platform.
The particular strength of cloud capital lies in the fact that the same company can simultaneously observe Behaviour, change the environment of Choice and immediately measure the result. TikTok sees that a person remained on a particular clip and shows more similar content. Amazon sees a purchase and restructures its recommendations. Meta records a reaction to a publication and changes the contents of the feed. Google receives a new search request and forms its results around the user’s interest and paid advertising positions.
The digital system therefore does not merely observe existing Behaviour. It uses the results of that observation to prepare the person’s next action.
Conclusion
Cloud capital is a concrete economic structure created by the largest digital companies.
Google controls one of the principal routes to information, websites, products and services. Through Facebook and Instagram, Meta distributes the visibility of publications and advertising offers. YouTube and TikTok manage streams of video and recommendations. Amazon connects sellers with buyers and determines the position of products inside its marketplace. Apple and Google control the distribution of mobile applications. Booking.com and Airbnb organise access by hotels and property owners to tourism Demand. Uber, Bolt, Glovo, Wolt and Deliveroo manage digital access to journeys, delivery and urban services. Spotify and Netflix distribute the visibility of music, films and series.
These companies do not necessarily produce the goods and services to which they provide access. Google does not write most of the texts found through its search engine. Amazon does not manufacture most of the products sold on its marketplace. Booking.com does not own most of the hotels listed on its service. Uber and Bolt do not own the cars used by most of their drivers. YouTube and TikTok do not create the majority of the videos placed on their platforms.
Their economic strength arises from controlling the path between the person and the result they are seeking.
This path begins with Behaviour. The platform observes what the person watches, searches for, compares, opens, ignores and purchases. It then uses that data to organise the next Choice.
This is how the first part of The Fundamental Law of Political Economy operates:
Personality → Behaviour → Choice → Demand → Money
Google, Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Amazon, Booking.com and other companies enter this sequence at the level of Behaviour and Choice. They cannot completely determine the person’s decision, but they can shape the set of visible alternatives, their order, ratings, frequency of repetition and moment of presentation.
Demand arises on this basis. The person clicks on Google advertising, purchases a product on Amazon, books a hotel through Booking.com, orders a journey through Uber, arranges delivery through Glovo, installs an application through the App Store or watches a video recommended by YouTube.
Demand is converted into Money: advertising payments, commissions, subscriptions, promotional payments, purchases, bookings and payments for digital services.
But Money is not the final point.
Money → Form of the System
The Money received allows Google to expand its search, advertising and cloud infrastructure. Meta improves the algorithms of Facebook and Instagram. Amazon develops its marketplace, logistics, advertising and AWS. Apple strengthens the connection between the iPhone, App Store, payments and subscriptions. TikTok improves its personalised recommendation system. Booking.com expands its audience and increases the dependence of hotels on access to that audience.
A system is therefore formed in which several private companies control the principal digital gateways to information, buyers, applications, hotels, transport, entertainment and audiences.
The reverse movement then begins:
Form of the System → Demand → Choice → Behaviour → Personality
The person enters an already established Form of the System. They do not see the entire internet; they open Google’s search results. They do not examine every product on the market; they receive an Amazon list. They do not consider every hotel directly; they choose among the offers on Booking.com. They do not see every publication by friends and authors; they receive a Facebook or Instagram feed. They do not independently compile a list of videos; they follow the recommendations of YouTube or TikTok.
The Form of the System created through previous Money once again influences the person’s Demand, Choice and Behaviour. The more often the person uses these channels, the more data and Money their owners receive. The more data and Money they receive, the stronger the Form of the System they have created becomes.
This is the essence of cloud capital.
It gains power not because it owns every product, hotel, vehicle, restaurant, text, film or musical work. It gains power because it controls the digital routes through which the person reaches them.
For a strong, united Europe, this means that regulating Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, TikTok and other major companies is not enough. Europe must possess its own search engines, cloud capacity, marketplaces, advertising tools, application stores, information-distribution platforms and direct channels between European producers and European people.
Otherwise, European companies will produce goods and services, European authors will create content, European hotels will receive guests and European citizens will form Demand, while the rules of access, visibility and the distribution of Money will be established by external digital centres.
Cloud capital changes the economy because control over the means of production is supplemented by control over Behaviour, Choice and access to Demand.
- In the industrial system, power was concentrated in the ownership of production.
- In the digital system, power increasingly belongs to those who control the routes through which people reach products, services, information, markets and one another.
Iv.Spolan
Author of the model “The Fundamental Law of Political Economy”
