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27 July 2023

The World, America, Waze and BigTech

Daniel Mihai

Although he was not among the group of entrepreneurs who founded the Israeli company that created the Waze navigation program, Noam Bardin is largely credited for its remarkable success. He remained at the helm of the company after Google bought Waze in 2013 for an impressive $1.15 billion, beating out Facebook, which was also interested in the acquisition. Under the baton of Bardin Waze, which is also very popular, has currently reached over 140 million users globally. What differentiated Waze from other navigation programs and was a determining factor for its success was the fact that it superimposed on the navigation program that used maps and GPS data the information taken from the network of users, the wazers, present in the area where the vehicle was moving. In this way, those who use the program benefit from a lot of useful information, from signaling the presence of the police on the route to possible obstacles on the road. In addition, in heavy traffic conditions, Waze suggests alternative solutions to reduce travel time.

Noam Bardin recently decided to part ways with Waze and Google and his analysis and observations from an extensive post on the paygo website are extremely interesting because they describe the culture and atmosphere existing in Silicon Valley, especially in large digital corporations such as Google, Facebook, Twitter or Apple, known generically as BigTech. Moreover, they ultimately even have geopolitical relevance because, to a large extent, the global competition in the economy, in the military area, in terms of propaganda and disinformation, of cyber war, takes place in the digital space.

The subject is all the more interesting as we are in a period where the influence and arrogant behavior of BigTech have become an intense topic of discussion on an international level. First, Facebook and Twitter permanently…

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