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In today's age, can we make the distinction between a tech company and a non-tech company? How many B2B digital services does JP Morgan Chase offer, how many co

In today's age, can we make the distinction between a tech company and a non-tech company? How many B2B digital services does JP Morgan Chase offer, how many consumer-facing digital services? Does that make them a tech company as well as a financial institution? I think this may be a knee-jerk reaction to the rise in crypto-currency adoption, and Facebook's launch of Libra. Rethinking it, this could also be taking aim at Amazon.

TulliusCicero 7y ago
Also, it seems like this would make relatively sensible financial services from tech companies harder to get. Apple Pay/Google Pay, for example. A smartphone company is a perfectly logical choice to push for smartphone-based payments. I don't think that's the kind of thing we'd want to regulate away. Sometimes, vertical integration can be a good thing, because for some spaces the alternative requires so much coordination that it's awkward and clumsy. If you look at Tesla's supercharger network, for example. The very fact that there are no really serious competitors yet that are not tied to a specific brand of electric car demonstrates how lack of vertical integration can be a major impediment for chicken-and-egg-type problems. And while I'm sure there eventually will be, just having Tesla out there in the forefront is useful as a leading example.
hedora 7y ago
Presumably car manufacturers are also “tech companies”, along with online-only banks + lenders.
Cuuugi 7y ago
Google is a heavy investor in Credit Karma if memory serves.
0xDEFC0DE 7y ago
It's a pretty ridiculous solution for a real problem IMO. I'm leaning towards tinfoil-hat on this one. This proposal exists for some other nefarious reason.
- ticmasta 7y ago
  Well yes, if the "nefarious" reason you suspect is to gain easy political points. Why wouldn't they just look at regulating the product side (ie the actual services like crypto currencies) on their own merits and not discriminate against who provides them?
booleandilemma 7y ago
My favorite (ridiculous) quote about the blurring of what exactly is a tech company: ”Moxy...will be a technology company that just happens to fly airplanes” https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2018/09/21/moxy-jetblue-airways-founder-will-tech-company-just-happens-fly-airplanes https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2018/09/21/moxy...
- nashashmi 7y ago
  UPS: we are a tech company masquerading as a shipping company.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    From even the small scale that I use to work at - routing field service workers (cable installers, propane deliveries, alarm company installers, etc) efficiently is a “hard problem”. On the scale that UPS operates it takes a lot f technology.
lunias 7y ago
In my experience, nearly everyone is a tech company, but the ones that admit it to themselves and others tend to be better at it. FANG aside, I feel like purebred tech companies are more likely to deliver what people want as opposed to existing financial institutions that are interested only in keeping up (in the ultimate minimal sense) with what other companies show is possible. I once worked at an online college that claimed to "not be a tech company". I replied, "if your website goes down then where will people go to take classes? How will professors interact with students?" They didn't get it.

TulliusCicero 7y ago

Also, it seems like this would make relatively sensible financial services from tech companies harder to get. Apple Pay/Google Pay, for example. A smartphone company is a perfectly logical choice to push for smartphone-based payments. I don't think that's the kind of thing we'd want to regulate away. Sometimes, vertical integration can be a good thing, because for some spaces the alternative requires so much coordination that it's awkward and clumsy. If you look at Tesla's supercharger network, for example. The very fact that there are no really serious competitors yet that are not tied to a specific brand of electric car demonstrates how lack of vertical integration can be a major impediment for chicken-and-egg-type problems. And while I'm sure there eventually will be, just having Tesla out there in the forefront is useful as a leading example.

hedora 7y ago

Presumably car manufacturers are also “tech companies”, along with online-only banks + lenders.

Cuuugi 7y ago

Google is a heavy investor in Credit Karma if memory serves.

0xDEFC0DE 7y ago

It's a pretty ridiculous solution for a real problem IMO. I'm leaning towards tinfoil-hat on this one. This proposal exists for some other nefarious reason.

ticmasta 7y ago
Well yes, if the "nefarious" reason you suspect is to gain easy political points. Why wouldn't they just look at regulating the product side (ie the actual services like crypto currencies) on their own merits and not discriminate against who provides them?

booleandilemma 7y ago

My favorite (ridiculous) quote about the blurring of what exactly is a tech company: ”Moxy...will be a technology company that just happens to fly airplanes” https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2018/09/21/moxy-jetblue-airways-founder-will-tech-company-just-happens-fly-airplanes https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2018/09/21/moxy...

nashashmi 7y ago
UPS: we are a tech company masquerading as a shipping company.
- scarface74 7y ago
  From even the small scale that I use to work at - routing field service workers (cable installers, propane deliveries, alarm company installers, etc) efficiently is a “hard problem”. On the scale that UPS operates it takes a lot f technology.

lunias 7y ago

In my experience, nearly everyone is a tech company, but the ones that admit it to themselves and others tend to be better at it. FANG aside, I feel like purebred tech companies are more likely to deliver what people want as opposed to existing financial institutions that are interested only in keeping up (in the ultimate minimal sense) with what other companies show is possible. I once worked at an online college that claimed to "not be a tech company". I replied, "if your website goes down then where will people go to take classes? How will professors interact with students?" They didn't get it.