The Dark Web may be a hotbed of criminal activity but it’s also home to a host of successful marketplace practices
The Dark Web is an unknown entity to many, but one thing experts do know is that the markets held within it can be immense. While the black markets can’t necessarily be quantified in terms of items sold and revenues made, Felipe Thomaz, Associate Professor of Marketing, Saïd Business School, estimates that it handles transactions worth between US$800 and US$900 billion each year.
And while the common view may be that this is exclusively an illegal economy, Professor Thomaz points out that this isn’t the case. ‘The perception is that the Dark Web is threatening and that only bad things happen there. In fact, it incorporates an interesting set of technologies of which the illegal part is likely to be very small. It’s a whole set of privacy tools and much of what is on there is legitimate,’ he explains.