The Battle for the Internet

For the last two centuries, great powers – both nations and associated firms – have fiercely competed to set the technical standards for leading technologies. By imposing their preferred standards, nations not only solve technical problems to their advantage, but also project power globally. Standards determine what kind of technology will become predominant, ensuring market shares and market power to the countries and companies that set them, while forcing foreign competitors to adapt at hefty cost. ¹ As the industrialist Werner von Siemens reportedly put it: ‘He who owns the standards, owns the market.’ ² Standards can also pay strategic dividends. The radio network that Britain established in the late nineteenth century afforded it a monopoly over radio transmissions that it used successfully in the Second World War against Germany. ³ Once a standard becomes locked in, it is rarely overturned. Today, there is no rail line that connects East Asia with Europe without at least two divergences in gauges. ⁴ This is because, in the nineteenth century, the Russian tsars deliberately chose a different gauge to prevent European wagons and locomotives from using Russian tracks for invasion.