There is no question that the most profound factor affecting modern life is the ability to replicate and store data at almost no cost. This revolution in information has provided us with a wealth of benefits and possibilities for an incredibly low marginal price.

At zero cost, we can connect to a global store of all human knowledge. New apps with impressive features can cost less than a dollar, and our monthly Netflix subscriptions hardly register on our credit card statements. Meanwhile, we share our thoughts about the world with our friends and family at no cost through social networks, email, or other means of communications. This hasn’t been possible throughout human existence, and it is only feasible now because of the incredible scale of the internet.

While we all make the connection that these individual activities help to bring in revenue to the world’s tech giants, the ultimate size and scale of the numbers in aggregate are almost incomprehensible to the human brain.

How many Google searches do you make each day? What about your neighborhood, city, or country? How about the world?

Today’s two visualizations look at the sheer amounts of data processed every 10 seconds by the world’s tech giants, as well as the amount of impressive profit yielded.

How much data is processed every 10 seconds?

In just 10 seconds, close to 225,000 GB of data is transferred, with over 500,000 posts on Facebook, 57,000 tweets, 46,000 searches on Google, and 2 million messages sent on WhatsApp.

While each click or view may only translate to pennies for the world’s tech giants, in aggregate it amounts to so much more:

How much profit is made every 10 seconds?

The numbers are astounding, and hopefully help to create perspective on the scale of technology and business.

Want to see this spectacle in real-time? Go to this website.