These titans- Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft looks unstoppable. These are five most valuable firms which are listed on stock exchange. According to the Economist, they collectively earned $25 bn in net profit in the first quarter of 2017. The Giants deal in data, the oil of the digital era.
In the US, Amazon captures 50% of online transactions. Google and Facebook almost garner all the online advertisement spending.
Today few of us want to live without Google’s search engine, or Facebook’s newsfeed or Amazon’s delivery. The most intriguing part is that they are not overcharging customers but mostly offering services at little or zero cost, but by handing over more personal data such age, age, sex and income. The data gives enormous power to these companies. The personal data sharing is a cause of concern to many.
Smartphone and Internet helps these companies to get data about its consumers ubiquitously. Artificial Intelligence (AI) combined with the machine learning helps these companies to predict their customer’s behavior. These companies need abundant data. By collecting more data, these firms have more scope to improve their products.
Today, clever combination of data, AI, and machine learning helps Tesla to have more net worth than GM.
Cleaver and Intriguing Strategies
These companies always look out for new wells of information, so that they can go on getting continuous data to mine and go on building cleaver predictive analysis for customers.
While looking out for new wells, these companies applied cleaver strategies to get more customers in their stable and their data, which further allows them to do more clever business. Where can one find better example than acquisition of WhatsApp at $22bn by Facebook in 2014? This take over has underlying smart move of eliminating potential rivals and provide barrier to new entrant.
Similar strategy might be applied by Microsoft while acquiring LinkedIn in 2016.
However, some of the strategies are still not clear to me, namely Waze by Alphabet. It is in the mapping and navigation business, and Google already has Good Map in it’s stable.
Company to Watch
Even though these giants go on hogging the limelight, there are some who deserves attention and one of these companies if Priceline, a world’s largest online travel company. This company has done an impressive comeback after suffering a near-death situation at the dot-com bust. Today in its stable various online sites for booking hotels, cars, flights, and restaurants mapping across the globe and includes Booiking.com, Kayak, Agonda, and OpenTable.
I sometimes wonder that if this company would have been in the Silicon Valley then instead of New York, then it would have been rever by geeks and technology investors.
This company have shrewd deal-making allow to aggregate its Dutch acquisition hotel inventory with another UK’s acquisition. Today it has world’s most massive supply of hotel accommodation. In addition to the hotel accommodation, it supports “alternative accommodation” like rentals of apartments, villas and home like other beckons like Airbnb, HomeAway. Though the company is not at the cutting edge of the technology cleaver use of it.
Summary
The valuation and lifespan of the company increase when it’s products has features like ubiquitous, continuous data logging, data mining and analyzing. (Reference: the figures referred in the article are from The Economist).
About Author:
Atul Gunjal, is Co-founder and CEO of IWORKTECH. It is Alpharetta, GA based company. It has development centre in Pune, India. IWORKTECH develops solutions and products in the areas like Utility, Healthcare and Education. It has wide experience in providing Enterprise Wide solution. Atul earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical from the University of Pune, India. He direct IWORKTECH’s overall vision and business strategy, including expansion into new markets, high-level technology direction and operations. His previous experience helps him to convert ideas into tangible products. He got rich experience in building successful software and service organizations.
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