
Internet Empire
The Hidden Digital War
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Will Huggins
-
By:
-
Sean Ennis
About this listen
Virtual business is here to stay. But it has a dark side. This audiobook explains how the internet expansion of US companies has been like that of traditional empire building. Arguing from detailed analysis of the origins of the internet, the cross-border nature of internet products, and the economic nature of war, the author shows how the rise of internet platforms has been a mixed blessing. He then shares ways that we can change our own behavior to make the internet economy better for our individual and collective future.
Modern economies are fundamentally different from those of the past five millennia. Professor Ennis shows how the transition to a digital economy leads to wonderful innovations, but also has a dark side that needs our attention. The digital world has created a new, civilized type of war, one that does not involve armies or guns but instead features bankers, optical fiber, algorithms, and Birkenstock-wearing geniuses. Where digital battles are fought for foreign territory, no one dies. But in these digital wars, private companies can take over and dominate foreign economic activity in ways that would be envied by Caesar and Napoleon. The author argues that the expansion of internet businesses has achieved the aims of war without its horrific consequences.
Governments are taking action, but it is too little and perhaps too late. Despite their best intentions, they do not take into account how we, the users, make decisions, and they focus unduly on company size rather than company behavior. Government policies over history are replete with unintended consequences—digital regulation will be no different.
When businesses distort and restrain markets, government policy is not enough to fight back. If the problems come from individual behavior, so should the solutions. Ennis shows that individual users of the internet all have a role to play in determining the future nature of our digital economies. Building on his provocative diagnosis, he suggests 15 ways we can take back control and, in so doing, transform the internet into a fairer and healthier place that can deliver freedom of choice.
©2023 Sean F. Ennis (P)2023 Islington Green PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
Stealth War
- How China Took Over While America's Elite Slept
- By: Robert Spalding
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The media often suggest that Russia poses the greatest threat to America's national security, but the real danger lies farther east. While those in power have been distracted and disorderly, China has waged a six-front war on America's economy, military, diplomacy, technology, education, and infrastructure - and they're winning. It's almost too late to undo the shocking, though nearly invisible, victories of the Chinese. In Stealth War, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Spalding reveals China's motives and secret attacks on the West.
-
-
A General with a backbone loaded with truth "woke"
- By Jason on 10-01-19
By: Robert Spalding
-
The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- By: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
-
-
Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- By Phil on 09-29-20
By: James Dale Davidson, and others
-
Platform Revolution
- How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy - and How to Make Them Work for You
- By: Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, Sangeet Paul Choudary
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Facebook, PayPal, Alibaba, Uber - these seemingly disparate companies have upended entire industries by harnessing a single phenomenon: the platform business model. Platform Revolution delivers the first comprehensive analysis of how platforms use technology to match producers and consumers in a multisided marketplace, unlocking hidden resources and creating new forms of value. When a company like Uber connects drivers with passengers, everybody wins - except traditional cab companies, which are scrambling to survive.
-
-
Finally a book that just gives you the info.
- By Kevin M on 09-13-16
By: Geoffrey G. Parker, and others
-
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
- By: Klaus Schwab
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolution, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work.
-
-
Friendly reminding : On August 15th, 1971, the dec
- By steve white on 03-24-21
By: Klaus Schwab
-
The Truth Machine
- The Blockchain and the Future of Everything
- By: Michael J Casey, Paul Vigna
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Truth Machine, Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna demystify the blockchain and explain why it can restore personal control over our data, assets, and identities; grant billions of excluded people access to the global economy; and shift the balance of power to revive society’s faith in itself. They reveal the disruption it promises for industries including finance, tech, legal, and shipping.
-
-
Decent blockchain book
- By Michael DC on 05-02-18
By: Michael J Casey, and others
-
The Bullish Case for Bitcoin
- By: Vijay Boyapati
- Narrated by: Vijay Boyapati
- Length: 2 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boyapati presents the theory of money, the anatomy of Bitcoin, the reasons it is superior to the gold and fiat standards that came before it, and the promise that it offers to human civilization. He describes path dependence and the trajectory of a newly monetizing asset in terms the layman can understand, and he addresses the concerns that most commonly arise as newcomers struggle to comprehend the essence and significance of this first digital monetary network.
-
-
This is the book you give your dad.
- By Kirk on 01-25-22
By: Vijay Boyapati
-
Stealth War
- How China Took Over While America's Elite Slept
- By: Robert Spalding
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The media often suggest that Russia poses the greatest threat to America's national security, but the real danger lies farther east. While those in power have been distracted and disorderly, China has waged a six-front war on America's economy, military, diplomacy, technology, education, and infrastructure - and they're winning. It's almost too late to undo the shocking, though nearly invisible, victories of the Chinese. In Stealth War, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Spalding reveals China's motives and secret attacks on the West.
-
-
A General with a backbone loaded with truth "woke"
- By Jason on 10-01-19
By: Robert Spalding
-
The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- By: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
-
-
Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- By Phil on 09-29-20
By: James Dale Davidson, and others
-
Platform Revolution
- How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy - and How to Make Them Work for You
- By: Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, Sangeet Paul Choudary
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Facebook, PayPal, Alibaba, Uber - these seemingly disparate companies have upended entire industries by harnessing a single phenomenon: the platform business model. Platform Revolution delivers the first comprehensive analysis of how platforms use technology to match producers and consumers in a multisided marketplace, unlocking hidden resources and creating new forms of value. When a company like Uber connects drivers with passengers, everybody wins - except traditional cab companies, which are scrambling to survive.
-
-
Finally a book that just gives you the info.
- By Kevin M on 09-13-16
By: Geoffrey G. Parker, and others
-
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
- By: Klaus Schwab
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolution, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work.
-
-
Friendly reminding : On August 15th, 1971, the dec
- By steve white on 03-24-21
By: Klaus Schwab
-
The Truth Machine
- The Blockchain and the Future of Everything
- By: Michael J Casey, Paul Vigna
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Truth Machine, Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna demystify the blockchain and explain why it can restore personal control over our data, assets, and identities; grant billions of excluded people access to the global economy; and shift the balance of power to revive society’s faith in itself. They reveal the disruption it promises for industries including finance, tech, legal, and shipping.
-
-
Decent blockchain book
- By Michael DC on 05-02-18
By: Michael J Casey, and others
-
The Bullish Case for Bitcoin
- By: Vijay Boyapati
- Narrated by: Vijay Boyapati
- Length: 2 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boyapati presents the theory of money, the anatomy of Bitcoin, the reasons it is superior to the gold and fiat standards that came before it, and the promise that it offers to human civilization. He describes path dependence and the trajectory of a newly monetizing asset in terms the layman can understand, and he addresses the concerns that most commonly arise as newcomers struggle to comprehend the essence and significance of this first digital monetary network.
-
-
This is the book you give your dad.
- By Kirk on 01-25-22
By: Vijay Boyapati
-
The Power of Crisis
- How Three Threats – and Our Response – Will Change the World
- By: Ian Bremmer
- Narrated by: Willis Sparks
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this revelatory, unnerving, and ultimately hopeful book, Bremmer details how domestic and international conflicts leave us unprepared for a trio of looming crises—global health emergencies, transformative climate change, and the AI revolution. Today, Americans cannot reach consensus on any significant political issue, and US and Chinese leaders behave as if they’re locked in a new Cold War. We are squandering opportunities to meet the challenges that will soon confront us all.
-
-
Not a Wonk
- By Linnie Toh on 06-08-22
By: Ian Bremmer
-
The People's Republic of Walmart
- How the World's Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism
- By: Leigh Phillips, Michal Rozworski
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An engaging, polemical romp through economic theory, computational complexity, and the history of planning, The People's Republic of Walmart revives the conversation about how society can extend democratic decision-making to all economic matters. With the advances in information technology in recent decades and the emergence of globe-straddling collective enterprises, democratic planning in the interest of all humanity is more important and closer to attainment than ever before.
-
-
great content ideology lacking
- By Kindle Customer on 10-21-19
By: Leigh Phillips, and others
-
China's Disruptors
- How Alibaba, Xiaomi, TenCent, and Other Companies Are Changing the Rules of Business
- By: Edward Tse
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In September 2014, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba raised $25 billion in the world’s biggest-ever initial public offering. Since then, millions of investors and managers worldwide have pondered a fundamental question: What’s really going on with the new wave of China’s disruptors? Alibaba wasn’t an outlier - it’s one of a rising tide of thriving Chinese companies, mostly but not exclusively in the technology sector. Now Edward Tse reveals how China got to this point, and what the country’s rise means for the United States and the rest of the world.
-
-
Too generic
- By Pablo on 10-01-15
By: Edward Tse
-
China Vision
- China’s Crusade to Create a World in Its Own Image
- By: Daniel Wagner
- Narrated by: Raymond S Gray
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Daniel Wagner, a veteran current affairs analyst and Asia expert, has been traveling to China since 1986, has visited the country dozens of times, has worked with some of its largest Chinese financial institutions and state-owned enterprises, and has published scores of articles on China since the 1990s. In this book, he examines why the Chinese government acts as it does on the international stage and the impacts it has had, and will have, on countries around the world in the future.
-
-
Not even a pretense of balance or objectivity
- By kpf gz on 06-23-19
By: Daniel Wagner
-
Radical Markets
- Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society
- By: Eric A. Posner, E. Glen Weyl
- Narrated by: James Conlan
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many blame today's economic inequality, stagnation, and political instability on the free market. The solution is to rein in the market, right? Radical Markets turns this thinking - and pretty much all conventional thinking about markets, both for and against - on its head. The book reveals bold new ways to organize markets for the good of everyone.
-
-
Terrible Reader ruins this book
- By BW on 10-30-18
By: Eric A. Posner, and others
-
The End of Power
- From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn't What It Used to Be
- By: Moises Naim
- Narrated by: Matt Kugler
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The End of Power, award-winning columnist and former Foreign Policy editor Moisés Naím illuminates the struggle between once-dominant megaplayers and the new micropowers challenging them in every field of human endeavor. Drawing on provocative, original research and a lifetime of experience in global affairs, Naím explains how the end of power is reconfiguring our world.
-
-
Another Power book
- By Anonymous User on 04-12-24
By: Moises Naim
-
The World Turned Upside Down
- America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership
- By: Clyde Prestowitz
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, most experts expected the WTO rules and procedures would liberalize China and make it "a responsible stakeholder in the liberal world order". But the experts made the wrong bet. China today is liberalizing neither economically nor politically but, if anything, becoming more authoritarian and mercantilist. In this book, renowned globalization and Asia expert Clyde Prestowitz describes the key challenges posed by China and the strategies America and the Free World must adopt to meet them.
-
-
Informative and engaging
- By Christopher P Pratt on 02-28-21
By: Clyde Prestowitz
-
The Sharing Economy
- The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism
- By: Arun Sundararajan
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, Arun Sundararajan, an expert on the sharing economy, explains the transition to what he describes as "crowd-based capitalism" - a new way of organizing economic activity that may supplant the traditional corporate-centered model. As peer-to-peer commercial exchange blurs the lines between the personal and the professional, how will the economy, government regulation, what it means to have a job, and our social fabric be affected?
-
-
Relevant & engaging
- By MPet on 05-20-16
-
The Exponential Age
- How Accelerating Technology Is Transforming Business, Politics, and Society
- By: Azeem Azhar
- Narrated by: Azeem Azhar
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
High-tech innovations are created at a dazzling speed, and it all points to a world that is getting faster at a dizzying pace. Azeem Azhar knows this better than most. Over the last three decades, he has founded companies bought by Amazon and Microsoft, served as the Economist’s first ever internet correspondent, and created a leading international tech newsletter and podcast, the Exponential View. Now, Azhar offers a revelatory new model for understanding how technology is changing the world.
-
-
Good & Bad
- By Jeff on 10-04-21
By: Azeem Azhar
-
The Digital Silk Road
- China's Quest to Wire the World and Win the Future
- By: Jonathan E. Hillman
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the ocean floor to outer space, China’s Digital Silk Road aims to wire the world and rewrite the global order. Taking listeners on a journey inside China’s surveillance state, rural America, and Africa’s megacities, Jonathan Hillman reveals what China’s expanding digital footprint looks like on the ground and explores the economic and strategic consequences of a future in which all routers lead to Beijing.
-
-
THE RACE TO WIRE THE WORLD
- By jaga on 01-23-22
-
The Globalization Paradox
- Democracy and the Future of the World Economy
- By: Dani Rodrik
- Narrated by: Mark Whitten
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this eloquent challenge to the reigning wisdom on globalization, Dani Rodrik reminds us of the importance of the nation-state, arguing forcefully that when the social arrangements of democracies inevitably clash with the international demands of globalization, national priorities should take precedence. Combining history with insight, humor with good-natured critique, Rodrik’s case for a customizable globalization supported by a light frame of international rules shows the way to a balanced prosperity as we confront today’s global challenges in trade, finance, and labor markets.
-
-
A remarkable perspective
- By Brad R Elledge on 02-11-18
By: Dani Rodrik
-
Subprime Attention Crisis
- Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet
- By: Tim Hwang
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process, he shows us how digital advertising - the beating heart of the internet - is at risk of collapsing, and that its potential demise bears an uncanny resemblance to the housing crisis of 2008. From the unreliability of advertising numbers and the unregulated automation of advertising bidding wars, to the simple fact that online ads mostly fail to work, Hwang demonstrates that the true value of consumers' attention is wildly misrepresented.
-
-
Good insight into an opaque marketplace
- By DK on 09-28-23
By: Tim Hwang