The power of Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook

On July 29, CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook joined the hearing before the antitrust council of the US Legislative Committee. This is considered a “power quartet” Big 4 of the US technology industry in particular and the world in general. The 4 numbers below will help us visualize some of these companies’ power.

The total capitalization of the 10 largest US public companies. Source: Axios

5 trillion USD

This is the combined capitalization of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (parent company Google) and Facebook. Apple, Google, Facebook are vulnerable if the economy continues to decline because of Covid-19, unlike Amazon, the e-commerce company is “sublimating” in the pandemic. However, at the present time, they are still 4 of the 5 most valuable technology firms in the US on the stock market. The fifth member is Microsoft.

5 years ago, the remaining 6 companies in the top 10 were worth 90% Big 4. However, they are now only about 75%.

773 billion USD

This is the Big 4’s annual revenue in fiscal 2019. Facebook revenue reached 70.7 billion USD, equivalent to Venezuela’s GDP; Alphabet reached 161.19 billion USD, almost equal to Ukraine’s GDP; Apple 260.2 billion USD, nearly equal to Vietnam’s GDP; Amazon 280.5 billion, equivalent to Pakistan’s GDP.

The financial year of Facebook, Alphabet and Amazon is equivalent to the 2019 calendar year, while Apple deviates more because its fiscal year starts from the fourth quarter of the calendar year (the fourth quarter of 2018 to the third quarter of 2019).

$ 420 billion

This is the total amount of cash that Big 4 is holding, based on the latest business results. In particular, Amazon has 49.6 billion USD, Facebook has 60.3 billion USD, Alphabet has 117.2 billion USD and Apple has 192.8 billion USD.

Huge amounts of cash enable them to make large investments, take over small rivals, repurchase shares often deal with crisis.

4.6 billion

This is the number of people connected to the Internet on Earth as of July 20, according to Statista. Big 4 wants to connect anyone who can go online with goods, products and others. Their size corresponds to the number of people they reach. Of course, not every place in the world welcomes 4 companies. For example, China closes with Facebook, Google; Amazon operates only in a few countries and cannot break into important markets like China. Apple’s expensive device is also not for the masses.

Despite these limitations, Big 4 still operates at an unprecedented scale: Google surpassed 2 billion users for the G Suite suite earlier this year, YouTube reached 2 billion monthly users since the year. 2019; Facebook had 2.6 billion monthly users in the first quarter; By the end of 2019, Apple has 1.5 billion devices in use; Amazon did not disclose the number of accounts, but in 2018, CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that he exceeded 100 million Prime members in the US.

It can be said that the power quartet is shaping people’s lives: the goods they buy, the entertainment content, the way to connect with family, friends, the way they see the world. This terrifying power is in the hands of a handful of companies of some people.