data as mass

The strange thing about data is that they are an inexhaustible resource: the more you have, the more you get. More information lets firms develop better services, which attracts more users, which in turn generate more data. Having a lot of data helps those firms expand into new areas, as Facebook is now trying to do with online dating. Online platforms can use their wealth of data to spot potential rivals early and take pre-emptive action or buy them up. So big piles of data can become a barrier to competitors entering the market, says Maurice Stucke of the University of Tennessee.

The Economist - A New School in Chicago

Greater centralization of internet and growing importance of data are basically two sides of the same coin. Data is like mass and therefore is subject to gravitation-like dynamics. Huge data-driven companies like Google and Facebook can be thought of as mature galaxy formations.

Light rays travel through fiber optic cables to transfer data and cruise across vast intergalactic voids to stitch together a causally integrated universe.