Tech giant refers to a technology establishment with a large global presence, billions of users, and a huge impact on the world. Examples of tech giants include Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Tesla.
What makes these companies so powerful is a system they’ve designed: tech systems that provide the infrastructure on which economic, social and political processes take place. And as those systems become increasingly essential to our daily lives, the tech giants’ power and influence increase accordingly.
In the US, where most of the world’s largest tech firms are based, a growing number of people believe new regulatory mechanisms are needed to control the power of tech giants. Doubt and scepticism turned into hostility in the wake of the Snowden revelations, and today’s tech giants face increasing calls to be held to account.
A tech giant’s power lies in its platform model, which allows it to connect suppliers to consumers, whether that’s advertisers to social network or search engine users, app developers to device owners, or vendors to online shoppers. This gives the company a ‘winner takes all’ advantage in its markets.
These tech giants also have a significant presence in physical infrastructure like the Internet (through investments in undersea cables), the cloud, and semiconductor manufacturing. They’re also moving into health care to commercialize personal access (Apple Watch and Apple Music), diagnosis (Google’s Verily), and prescriptions (Amazon’s PillPack). Moreover, they lead in innovation, beating government bureaucracies by years in artificial intelligence, space exploration (through SpaceX), and autonomous driving.
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