Who would the main contenders be in a struggle for world domination?

In order these are the top 5 companies in 2018:

1. Apple
2. Amazon
3. Google (now called ‘Alphabet’)
4. Microsoft
5. Facebook

Let’s have a quick look at each, did you know just how much they own and just how much they know about you?

Data is Power

Thanks to evolution in science and technology, in data mining, AI, behavioural economics, psychology & sociology – evolution giving us such things as big data (thanks also to increases in hardware and storage capability) and deep learning (thanks also to imropovements in processing speed and power), we now live in a world where data is power, like never before.

Using big data and AI, companies can predict your actions and perhaps due to storing unbelievable amounts of data about you, your world your friends etc etc – and being able to recall any or all of this data instantly – they know more about you than you do yourself.

Google

Google have been collecting data from day 1. Their mission statement is “To organise the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Google is powerful because millions of people use Google to search the web every second. Google stores every single one of these queries so it knows what people are searching for and by inference, what they are thinking, what is happening all over the world and even what is about to happen (for example people searching for medicines at certain times and locations helped Google to stay one step ahead of the progress of a flu epidemic and predict where it would strike next).

So who do we mean when we talk about Google?

OK, so they now go by the name Alphabet, their new mother ship company to put all their bits in, but we’ve known them for ages as Google, so I’m going to continue to refer to them as Google for simplicity. Same big company.

Google (Alphabet) is actually: Google Search (actually Google Personalised Search), Google Groups, Gmail, Blogger, Adsense, Adwords, iGoogle, Google Sites, Picasa, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Latitude, Google Mobile, Android, Skia, Google Desktop, Google Docs, Google Sketchup, Google Spreadsheet, Google Goggles, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Hangouts, Google Chrome, Panoramio, Feedburner, Google Voice, WebM, Google Books, DoubleClick, InviteMedia, Google Wave, Aardvark, WebRTC, Google Wallet, Google Checkout, Google Web Toolkit, Google+, Orkut, Google Play, Google Shopping, Google Alert, Google Translate, Google TV, Project Zero, Google Flights, Google Fiber, Android TV, Google Offers, Google Places, Android Wear, X, Google Cloud, Google Now, Google Knowledge Graph, Waze, Google Photos, Nest Labs, Google Deepmind, Project Loon, Google My Business, Android for Work, Verily, YouTube for Kids, Android Play, Google Cardboard, Tilt Brush, Google Inbox, Google Calendar, Google Play Books, Street View, Spaces, Firebase, Google Assistant, VR, Google Duo, Google Pixel, Accelerated Mobile Pages, Deja, Outride, Pyra Labs, Neotronic Software, Applied Semantics, Kaltix, Sprinks, Genius Labs, Ignite Logic, Zipdash, Where2, Keyhole Inc, Urchin Software Corporation, Dodgeball, Akwan Information Technologies, Reqwireless, Phatbits, AllPAY GmBH, bruNET GmBH, dMarc Broadcasting, Measure Map, Upstartle, @Last Software, Orion, 2Web Technologies, Neven Vision Germany GmBH, JotSpot, Endoxon, Adscape, Trendalyzer, Crusix, Tonic Systems, Marratech, Green Border, PeakStream, Zenter, GrandCentral, ImageAmerica, Postini, Zinku, Jaiku, Omnisio, TNC, Om2, reCAPTCHA, AdMob, Gizmo5, Teracent, Appjet, reMail, Picnik, Docverse, Episodic, PlinkArt, Agnilux, LabPixies, BumpTop, Global IP Solutions, Simplify Media, Ruba.com, MetaWeb, ZetaWire, Instantiations, Slide.com, Jambool, Like.com, Angstra, Social Deck Inc, Quiksee, Plannr, BlindType, Phonetic Arts, Wildevine Technologies, Ebook technologies, SayNow, Zynamics, BeatThatQuote.com, Next New Networks, Green Parrot Pictures, PushLife, ITA Software, TalkBin, SparkBuy, PostBank, AdMeld, Sage TV, Punchd, Fridge, PittPatt, Dealmap, Motorola Mobility, Zave Networks, Zagat, Daily Deal, Social Grapple, Apture, Katango, RightsFlow, Clever Sense, Milk Inc, TXVia, Meebo, QuickOffice, Sparrow, WIMM Labs, Wildfire Interactive, VirusTotal.com, Nik Software Inc, Viewdle, Incentive Targeting Inc, BufferBox, Channel Intelligence, DNNresearch Inc, Talaria Technologies, Behavio, Wavii, Makani Power, Bump, Flutter, FlexyCore, SHAFT Inc, Industrial Perception, Redwood Robotics, Meka Robotics, Holomni, Bot & Dolly, Autofuss, BitSpin, Impermium, SlickLogin, spider.io, Green throttle, Titan Aerospace, Rangespan, Adometry, Appetas, Stackdriver, MyEnergy, Quest Visual, Divide, Skybox Imaging, mDialog, Alpental Technologies, Dropcam, Appurify, Songza, DrawElements, Emu, Director, Jetpac, Gecko Design, Zync Render, Lift Labs, Polar, Dark View Labs & Vision Factory, Revolv, Relative Wave, Vidmaker, Launchpad Toys, Odysee, Softcard, Red hot Labs, Thrive Audio, Skillman & Hackett, Timeful, pulse.io, Pixate, Oyster, Jibe Mobile, Agawi, Digisfera, Fly Labs, bebop, Bandpage, Pye, Synergise, Webpass, Moodstocks, Anvato, Kifi, Launchkit, Orbitera, Apigee, Urban Engines, API.AI, FameBit, Eyefluence, LeapDroid, Qwiklabs, Cronologics, Limes Audio, Fabric, Kaggle, Appbridge, Owlchemy Labs, Halli Labs, AIMatter, HTC (portions), Bitium, Relay Media, 60db, Tenor, Velostrata, Cask, GraphicsFuzz, Senosis, Onward.

That is no less than 285 companies!!!! (and I may have missed a few).

It’s safe to say that Google are now so MAMMOTH that if they like a company (or their technology), most of the time they can just acquire it and absorb it into one of their existing platforms (or make a new one) – also a handy way to deal with up and coming competitors.

It would take me forever to explain what every one of these companies does, but let’s just say Google has it’s fingers in a lot of pies.

I was also going to put a link to each one (most of these have wiki pages) but guess what you can do if you want to find out more about any of the above?

I was also going to list the subsidiaries of each company, but it took me so long to do this for Google and I also didn’t want to write a really long article, so let’s just assume it’s a similar story. I’m sure it is at least for Facebook. Anyway, a few words about Facebook…

Facebook

Facebook is where millions of people log in every second and tell the world every little thing they are doing, liking, thinking etc. Every little aspect of their lives shared with their friends, the world, AND Facebook.

Also, companies pay Facebook to advertise themselves on Facebook’s platform (meaning guess who owns that data), then Facebook sells that same data again (albeit analysed and re-formatted a little) back to the same companies, hence getting paid twice whilst the company pays twice for some social media marketing (because the free social media marketing doesn’t work so well any more thanks to Facebooks algorithm updates of a few years ago, roughly around the time they floated).

Amazon & The Rest

Amazon track your purchase history and online clicks just like Google. In fact Amazon were created before Google and the Google company model was based on the Amazon (user 2.0) model, as was Facebook. There was also a collaboration between Amazon & Google (GoogleZon) which resulted in a pretty high profile court case.

The rest are similar, these are huge companies that own lots and lots and lots of companies, and lots and lots and lots of data, hence they hold lots of power.

So, World Domination anyone?