Kuala Lampur, July 23 -- JULY 23 -The world is now consumed by digitalisation. No country is spared from the digital fever. Malaysia is not excluded. For nearly two decades, we operated under a comforting illusion: the internet was a global common. A startup in Bangalore could sell to a customer in Boston.

A regulator in Brussels could influence a platform in San Francisco. The digital economy was a rising tide, and we assumed it would lift all boats equally. That era is now over.

A latest research by Bhaskar Chakravorti etal, published in the Harvard Business Review, paints a stark picture of a world splitting apart. The unified global digital marketplace is fracturing into distinct, heavily fortified blocs.

And while conventional wis...