— Ch. 1 · Origins And Evolution —
Big Tech.
~6 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
In 2013, economist Jim Cramer coined the acronym FANG to describe Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. He called these companies "totally dominant in their markets" and claimed they were poised to take a bite out of declining sectors. The term Big Tech began appearing around that same year as economists speculated that deregulation would lead to concentrated market power. Before this moment, IBM, Microsoft, and Apple dominated the worldwide information technology industry during the late 20th century. The dot-com bubble wiped out most Nasdaq Composite stock market index stocks before surviving startups expanded their market share. Following Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, access to large amounts of data allowed tech companies to influence users. This event made the concept of Big Tech popular among critics who compared it to Big Oil following the 1970s energy crisis. Congress attempted to regulate those industries just as it later targeted Big Tobacco. By 2024, the largest six tech companies in the United States included Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia. These entities also became the largest companies globally by market capitalization.
Corporate Titans Defined
Alphabet reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion for the first time in January 2020. It became the fourth U.S. company to achieve this milestone after Google operated several world-famous internet services. As of 2024, Google provided online advertising through Google Ads and web search via Google Search. YouTube served video sharing while Gmail handled email and Chrome acted as a web browser. Android powered mobile operating systems and Waze offered web mapping alongside Google Maps. Cloud storage came through Google Drive while its cloud computing division ranked third globally behind Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Advertising accounted for 82% of Google's revenue in 2021. Amazon held 38% of e-commerce market share in the United States as of 2024. Its Amazon Web Services division generated the majority of operating profit since 2014. Apple designed electronics including the iPhone, Mac computers, and Apple Watch. iOS held 27% global market share while Android captured 72%. Meta Platforms owned Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp. Advertising made up 96.69% of total revenue in 2024. Microsoft developed Windows, Office suites, and Teams for business communication. Nvidia became the dominant supplier of hardware used by artificial intelligence systems. By late 2024, Nvidia surpassed both Amazon and Alphabet in market value.