*This article was taken from the May issue of Wired magazine.
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Who are the people who shape the Wired world? Which influencers can make or break a product launch, or determine how we'll spend our leisure time? We wanted to know. With input from 120 experts in fields from architecture to advertising, software to science, we present Wired's first annual survey of Britain's top digital power-brokers.
Positions 100 to 51 and positions 50 to 11 have already appeared online. Today, we present you with the all important positions 10 to 1. Should you have been on these lists? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
10. Daniel Ek
CEO, Spotify
After undermining the music business with uTorrent, Ek now plans to save it. Spotify needs to turn a profit first, and fast, as Apple approaches the cloud music market with Lala.
09. Ashley HighfieldMD of Microsoft, consumer and online UK
By turning the BBC into a digital behemoth, Highfield earned accusations of creating unfair competition. So he probably feels at home in charge of Microsoft's UK arm.
08. Bernard LiautaudGeneral partner, Balderton Capital Various Balderton partners vied for our attention. Liautaud's advantage: Business Objects, the software giant he founded, was sold to SAP for $6.8 billion in 2008.
07. Stephen FryRenaissance man; tech champion
With 1.4 million Twitter followers and wide reach for his columns and podcasts, Fry -- an obsessive Apple fan -- is the single most influential communicator on tech themes.
06. Rishi SahaHead of new media, Conservative Party
As coordinator of the Tories' digital election strategy, he wants to show Westminster as inclusive and transparent.
05. Erik HuggersDirector of future media and technology, BBC
An ex-Microsoft exec who now co-ordinates digital strategy for BBC creativity, access and, ultimately, survival.
04. James Murdoch*Chairman and CEO, News Corporation Europe &
Asia*
His BBC-bating has paved the way for its retrenchment. But his big test now is whether he can reinvent his newspaper businesses behind an online pay wall.
03. Pascal CagniGM and VP, Apple EMEA
If you're a publisher in Europe, you need to speak to Cagni. Having spent years denying an Apple tablet, he's now listening to offers.
02.Saul Klein
Executive chairman & founder, Seedcamp; partner, Index Ventures
One of Europe's most significant VCs, with Skype and LOVEFiLM under his belt. Seedcamp gives him huge reach. See p30.
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1.Matt Brittin,
CEO Google UK
Google may have reported recession busting 2009 revenues of $23.7 billion (£15.9 billion), but recent months have been some of the most turbulent in the firm's 12-year history. In February, an Italian court convicted three executives over privacy violations, as it emerged that Google faces anti-monopoly investigation by European Commission regulators.
Another privacy row flared up over the launch of social-networking tool Buzz. All headaches for a vast business now stretching from mobile handsets to web browsers. Britain is Google's second-biggest territory, with revenue last year of more than £1.9bn. This makes its country head, Matt Brittin, a looming presence at 6ft 3in, the most influential single individual in the UK's digital arena.
So does Brittin think Google can persuade the public to trust it over privacy? "In retrospect we could have done [theBuzz launch] better," he says. "But we want to be there innovating at pace, and the price you pay for that is having to adapt fast. There were things we could do to make Buzz significantly better and we did that in a matter of days." As for EC regulators, he shrugs: "We're likely to have more criticism. Sometimes we need to do a better job of educating people about how technology is changing."
Google is famously top-down, with even low-level hiring decisions micromanaged at Mountain View HQ. So how much day-today autonomy does Brittin actually have? "We operate in a very joined-up way," he replies, a touch evasively. "The UK is a pioneering market. E-commerce spend per capita in Britain is nearly three times that in the US. We see things here earlier, and increasingly we're at the sharp end of developing Google products worldwide."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
