This distinguishes them from the other large tech companies such as Microsoft and IBM, according to Simon and Galloway. įormer Google CEO Eric Schmidt, author Phil Simon, and NYU professor Scott Galloway have each grouped these four companies together based on their significant impact on social change through their dominant role in online activity. They were known as GAFA before Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021. They have also been referred to as "The Four", the "Gang of Four", and the "Four Horsemen". In 2019, John Naughton wrote in The Guardian that "it's almost impossible to function without the big five tech giants." Big Four Īlphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Apple are commonly referred to as the Big Four. Commentators have questioned the impact of these companies on privacy, market power, freedom of speech, censorship, national security, and law enforcement. Concerns over monopolistic practices have led to antitrust investigations from the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission in the United States, as well as the European Commission. They serve billions of users, and are able to influence user behavior and control large amounts of user data. As such, they have been criticized for creating a new economic order called " surveillance capitalism". The Big Five are powerful corporations in structural and relational terms. The Big Tech companies are considered among the most prestigious employers in the world. tech companies (Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla) exceeded the combined market capitalization of all companies listed on every stock exchange in each respective G20 countries except the United States as a whole, China, and Japan. In February 2024, the combined market capitalization of the Magnificent Seven U.S. In August 2020, the Big Five accounted for nearly a quarter of the S&P 500, while in March 2023, Apple and Microsoft alone accounted for 13 percent of the S&P 500. They are among the most valuable public companies, with a maximum market capitalization of around 1 to above 3 trillion U.S. The Big Five are dominant players in their respective areas of technology: artificial intelligence, cloud computing, consumer electronics, e-commerce, home automation, online advertising, self-driving cars, social networking, software, and streaming media. Dominant companies like IBM and Microsoft were the 20th-century precursors to Big Tech. It is also similar to how, at the turn of the 21st century, the mainstream media became dominated by a small number of corporations called "Big Media" or the "Media Giants". The term "Big Tech" is similar to how the largest oil companies were called " Big Oil" following the 1970s energy crisis, or the largest cigarette producers were called " Big Tobacco", as the United States Congress sought to regulate those industries. The term "Big Tech" became popular around 2017, following the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, as the role these technology companies played with access to a large amount of user data (" Big data") and the ability to influence their users came under Congressional review. After the late-1990s dot-com bubble wiped out most of the Nasdaq Composite stock market index, surviving technology companies expanded their market share and could no longer be considered startups. The term "Big Tech" first appeared in media reports around 2013, as some economists saw signs of these companies becoming dominant with little regulation. Morgan in investment banking, the Big Three consulting firms, Big Oil, and Big Media. The concept of Big Tech is analogous to the consolidation of market dominance by a few companies in other market sectors, such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Big Tech can also include smaller tech companies with high valuations, such as Netflix and Nvidia, or non-tech companies with high-tech practices, such as the automaker Tesla. In China, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi ( BATX) are the equivalent of the Big Five. The term most often refers to the Big Five tech companies in the United States: Alphabet ( Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. Collectivity of the largest technology companiesīig Tech, also known as the Tech Giants, are the largest information technology companies.
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