The new tech divide: social media vs. everyone else

The tech industry is splintering in the wake of the controversies surrounding social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube. A wide range of companies — from legacy Silicon Valley firms like IBM and Oracle to business-focused firms like Salesforce and Cisco — want to be seen as responsible players who can be trusted to make wise decisions when faced with tough calls. Companies of all stripes are trying to explain more clearly what they do, why they're different, and how they benefit society, one senior level official at a non-internet company said.

• This segmentation has been brewing for some time, but negative headlines around social media have sharpened divisions. For example, a growing gap between firms that mainly sell to businesses and consumer-facing firms that make money on digital advertising.
• It's also a sign of the maturation of the industry, one tech lobbyist said. Tech companies are now so diverse that it’s no longer advantageous to be seen as a monolithic bloc.
• “Everyone is fighting their own battles,” the lobbyist said, adding that there’s not a lot of industry cooperation right now as companies focus on shoring up their own identities.
• Others frame it as competitive tension between pre-Internet-era tech firms and Silicon Valley's newer generation. "Legacy tech companies have been under pressure for some time for not keeping up on the innovation front," said a tech industry source. "It's not surprising entrenched players are trying to slow down insurgent competition."