In a world where digital development and policymaking are dominated by Silicon Valley tech giants, the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - play an increasingly important role. With forty percent of the world's population and twenty-five percent of global GDP, these nat ... ions possess vast troves of personal data. Yet, their conceptions, narratives, and initiatives of digital sovereignty remain understudied. This volume is the first to explore digital sovereignty from a Global South perspective and offers a forward-looking take on what a world less dependent on Silicon Valley might look like. It brings together excellent analyses of BRICS digital sovereignty issues, from historical imaginaries to up-to-date conceptualizations, e-payment to smart cities, legal analysis to geopolitical assessment. By offering neglected perspectives from the Global South, this book makes important contributions to the digital sovereignty debate. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core more

"Broadly speaking, the Chinese media and internet economy experienced considerable growth from $524.17 billion in 2019 to $652.11 billion in 2021, despite the inhibiting impact of the COVID pandemic on growth in many sectors of the global economy. The Chinese media and internet economy— estimated ... at $652 billion in 2021 based on our assessment across 25 sectors—is now the second largest in the world. $1,288.4 billion in 2021, the largest in the world. Across the various sectors, market concentration tends to be more extreme in “telecoms & internet access sectors” (e.g. wireline and wireless) and “core internet applications” (e.g. search engines, mobile OS and desktop OS) than “online and traditional media services (content media)” sectors. While state media enterprises dominate “telecoms & internet access services” and “online and traditional media services (content media)” sectors, private Chinese firms are market leaders in many “core internet applications” except for mobile/desktop operating systems and mobile/desktop browsers sectors, where foreign players—Google, Apple, and Microsoft—have a stronghold." (Executive summary) more