Mature industries generally come to be dominated by a few big players, and the Internet is no exception. The big players define the environment and the platforms that everyone else has to deal with; resistance is generally futile, until the next era comes along, usually many years later.
On the heels of third quarter earnings announcements, the WSJ has a piece reflecting on how much of commercial Internet activity is dominated by five companies:
This dominance didn't occur overnight.
Not coincidentally, all five companies beat analysts' earnings estimates for Q3. Microsoft, dealing with the continued decline of PC software, managed to make up for it through the impressive growth of its Azure cloud business.
Business Insider has a related piece on Amazon's dominance of the cloud segment; Microsoft is in second place, IBM and Google are struggling to keep up, and everyone else is basically tied for last.
We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. Get the picture? You laughing now?
- Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @12:04PM
Did you?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @12:37PM
It's pretty hard to avoid the Googs since they own YouTube. Other video hosting sites just don't have the established userbase.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @01:37PM
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday November 08 2015, @08:18PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @08:29PM
Currently DuckDuckGo. Use basically anything but google.
(Score: 2) by Celestial on Sunday November 08 2015, @09:12PM
Google is nearly impossible to avoid because, as said above, of YouTube. Want to watch a video? Odds are great that it's on YouTube. Other than YouTube though, I manage to avoid Google.
Amazon I give money to for digital comic books and graphic novels (Comixology), eBooks, and Kindles mostly. It has no real competitor in the digital comic books and graphic novels market. The only real competitor it has left in the eBooks and eReaders arena is Kobo (at least in the United States), and their customer service is nowhere near the level as Amazon's. Plus, Amazon Prime is hard to beat.
Apple I give money to simply because it has the best tablets and best tablet OS. Sorry, Android tablets don't cut it, at least not for me.