Big Tech
What Is Big Tech?
The term “Big Tech” refers to the largest or most dominant American technology companies.
Deeper Definition
Big Tech, otherwise known as “Tech Giants,” is a term used to describe major American technology companies that dominate their respective fields – namely Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook). Occasionally, Microsoft features are on the list. They are the dominant players in their respective technology areas such as e-commerce, online advertising, social networking, internet search, consumer electronics, cloud computing, and computer software.
The dominance of big tech companies in their respective fields may be due to their better understanding of the market and their ability to deliver products that meet customers’ needs. Hundreds of millions of people globally depend on one or more of their products in their daily lives. Some analysts speculate that people can’t participate in the digital world today without using one or more of the services provided by big tech companies.
The big tech companies have the largest market capitalization. This ranges from around $1 trillion to about $2 trillion in their respective fields. They feature among the most valuable public companies globally and expectedly have a pool of employees that consist of only highly skilled people from different parts of the world. Though all the big tech companies started in the United States, they have a global presence and continually expand to penetrating markets.
Big Tech Example
There are four major big tech companies:
- Alphabet (Google): Alphabet is the parent company of Google, the world’s most used online search engine. As of June 2021, Google dominates the global search engine market 92.47% market share. The company owns products that are doing exceptionally well in mobile advertising, operating systems, and artificial intelligence.
- Meta (Facebook): Facebook is the world’s largest social media company. It has over 2.9 billion monthly active users as of October 2021. Meta is the parent company of Facebook and other social media giants, namely WhatsApp and Instagram.
- Apple: Apple is the largest information technology company by revenue and the world’s most valuable company. It specializes in consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Some of their products include iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Macintosh, etc.
- Amazon: Amazon is the world’s largest online marketplace. The company is a significant player in diverse sectors, including e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.
