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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:
- Amazon (e-commerce, cloud services)
- Apple (mobile, music/TV services)
- Google/Alphabet (search, mobile, online video)
- Facebook (social networking)
- Microsoft (consumer/enterprise desktop platform, cloud services)
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: 2) by linkdude64 on Sunday November 08 2015, @04:04PM
Akamai might be the equivalent of the printing press, but then the 5 companies listed are the editors. The ones who directly control and steer not only policy, but access to the information that Akamai serves.