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Companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple will Significantly Influence the Future Through

their Technological Advancements and Overall Growth of Society

Big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have significant influence in the

digital market. The reach of these companies extends in most aspects ranging from social

networking, cloud computing, and search engines. According to data reported by Levy, Google,

Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple have a combined capital of more than $5 trillion,

making them influential and capable of shaping the economy of the world. The combined capital

gives them market dominance and the power to control an entire market. For example, as of

Voigt et al. (81), Google controlled more than 90% of the search engine market. Google’s power

makes it difficult for small companies to compete thereby stifling innovation as well as limiting

consumer choice. One advantage these companies have is the vast amount of data they collect

they can use for target advertising and optimization of services. This essay discusses whether

companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have the power and influence to impact

technological advancements and the growth of society. My position is that these companies will

significantly influence the future through their technological advancements and the overall

growth of society.

Google has been dominating the search engine market since its launch in 1997. The

company generates most of its revenue through online advertising. Naughton and Statista
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reported that Google controls 92% of the search engine market, while Forbes stated that Google

holds around 80% of the global search market. The parent company, Alphabet, the largest

internet company as of 2023 has a market capital of $1.6 trillion. The corporation expanded to

offer services like productivity tools, mail, and mobile services, making Google a technology

company with $305.6 billion in revenue as of 2023 (Statista). According to Statista, online

search engine providers like Bing controlled 10.51% of the search market. The data placed

Google as the leader in the market with 81.95% market share. Yahoo controlled 2.67% of the

search engine market share (Bianchi).

In 1998 after the launch of Google, the company set itself to making information

accessible to everyone. After a quarter century, the company evolved into a technology leader

and does more than facilitate online searches. Google has developed technology that promotes

health initiatives. For example, Google developed the Automated Retinal Disease Assessment

(ARDA) tool that screened 250,000 patients across the globe for diabetic retinopathy. the

company developed an algorithm for the detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR), the leading

cause of blindness in adults (Poschkamp and Stahl 1). The technology was a game-changer as it

helps to prevent avoidable blindness in regions that do not have specialized medical workers.

Another area Google invests in I AI unicorns and Cloud. According to Google, it controls 70%

of generative AI unicorns (Cherny and Endler). This implies that the investment by Google in

this area is integral. AI unicorn startups valued at $1 billion use artificial intelligence to

revolutionize industries and drive the future of technology. These firms develop innovative

solutions using artificial intelligence such as disease diagnostic tools for personalized

recommendations, thereby disrupting traditional industries as well as creating new markets. The

success stories from AI unicorns attract great investments that fuel more research and
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development. The constant technological advancements allow artificial intelligence to handle

complex problems such as modeling strategies to tackle climate change and self-driving vehicles.

AI unicorns spearhead this progress and shape society as they influence how people interact with

the world around them (Cusumano et al.). Google makes this possible as it develops platforms

such as cloud AI unicorns, thereby disrupting industries and societies.

According to Statista (2023), Facebook controls 50% of social media visits in America,

making it a leader in the social media website industry. Despite other social media sites gaining

ground and popularity, they control a small proportion of the market share. For example,

Instagram ranks second after Facebook and accounts for 15.85% of social media sites in the

United States. Pinterest controls 14.69% (Dixon). Like Google, Facebook is at the forefront of

technological advancements and shaping the growth of societies. Facebook has revolutionized

how people communicate with friends. Facebook has also changed cloud computing. For

example, Netflix, Walmart, Uber, and many mobile applications and services were designed

from technologies from Facebook. Mas Facebook expands and accommodates billions of users,

it creates tools such as data storage software that handle vast amounts of user information. The

company also develops data center hardware that hosts databases (Finley). Facebook does not

shy away from investing in big data thereby contributing to the larger computing community.

Casandra is one such innovation. Cassandra refers to a database system that scales many servers.

Even though Facebook was not the only company that built the database, it released the code for

internal applications (Lakshman and Malik 35). In addition, Facebook has invested in

Datacenter. Facebook designed software capable of handling millions of users and managing all

data. The company developed open-air data centers that use outside air for cooling instead of

industrial cooling systems. The company also developed modular serves that allow quick
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swapping out processors and other hardware components (Finley). These contributions from

Facebook make it at the forefront of technological advancements. These technologies shape how

people think and interact, help to establish new connections, and the development of new

industries.

The last company is Apple Inc., a manufacturer of technological devices. Some of the

best products of the company are Macintosh and Apple computers, iPhones, IPads, and iPods.

Apple Inc. is one of the most influential and powerful companies in the technology industry in

the world. The success of the company stems from innovation (ABC News). According to an

article on the CNN website, Apple Inc. is one of the most valuable companies in the world with a

capital of more than $2 trillion. As of 2024, first quarter, Statista highlighted that Apple Inc. had

a revenue of about $119.6 billion (Laricchia). The company continues to innovate and develop

new technologies, expanding to new markets such as finance and healthcare with the launch of

Apple Pay and Apple Health. Since 2001 Apple Inc. launched the iPod, it has invested billions in

research and development to develop new products to respond to changing consumer needs.

According to Statista, the hardware segment of the company makes the most profits although it

develops software applications. Apple Inc. being at the forefront of technological advancements

helps it to shape society, contributing to the growth of society.

In conclusion, companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple Inc. have significant power

to shape the future of technological advancements. The vast resources of these companies help

them to fuel innovation such as artificial intelligence, finance, and healthcare creating solutions

with global impact. For example, the Al advancements of Google help in tackling complex

problems as well as empower others through tools such as ARDA. Facebook, the leader in social

media communications helps in fostering connections as well as contributes to cloud computing

advancements. Apple focusses on innovation, develops user-friendly devices, and ventures into

new sectors like healthcare. Despite concerns about dominance, these companies are undeniable

drivers of progress, shaping how people live, work, and connect in an increasingly technological

landscape.

Works Cited

ABC News. ABC News, ABC News Network, 2011, abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-

death-top-10-products-including-apple/story?id=14680924.

Bianchi, Tiago. “Global Search Engine Desktop Market Share 2024.” Statista, 12 Feb. 2024,

www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-share-of-search-engines/.

Cusumano, Michael A., David B. Yoffe, and Annabelle Gawer. "The future of platforms."

(2021).

Dixon, Stacy Jo. “U.S. Top Social Media Sites Visit Share 2023.” Statista, 12 Sept. 2023,

www.statista.com/statistics/265773/market-share-of-the-most-popular-social-media-

websites-in-the-us/.

Endler, Michael, and Sabrina Cherny. “What 5 Ai Unicorns Think Is the next Big Thing | Google

Cloud Blog.” Google, Google, 2023, cloud.google.com/blog/transform/five-ai-unicorns-

make-gen-ai-predictions-whats-next.

Finley, Klint. “How Facebook Has Changed Computing.” Wired, Conde Nast, 4 Feb. 2019,

www.wired.com/story/how-facebook-has-changed-computing/.
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Heitzman, Adam. “Council Post: How Google Came to Dominate Search and What the Future

Holds.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 5 June 2017,

www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/06/05/how-google-came-to-dominate-

search-and-what-the-future-holds/?sh=51f356563872.

Lakshman, Avinash, and Prashant Malik. "Cassandra: a decentralized structured storage

system." ACM SIGOPS operating systems review 44.2 (2010): 35-40.

Laricchia, Federica. “Apple Revenue by Fiscal Quarter 2024.” Statista, 2 Feb. 2024,

www.statista.com/statistics/263426/apples-global-revenue-since-1st-quarter-2005/.

Levy, Ari. “Big Tech Is Worth over $5 Trillion Now That Alphabet Has Joined the Four Comma

Club.” CNBC, CNBC, 17 Jan. 2020, www.cnbc.com/2020/01/16/big-tech-worth-over-5-

trillion-with-alphabet-joining-four-comma-club.html.

Monica, Paul R. La. “Apple Passed $2 Trillion in Market Value | CNN Business.” CNN, Cable

News Network, 19 Aug. 2020, edition.cnn.com/2020/08/19/tech/apple-stock-two-trillion-

market-value/index.html.

Naughton, John. “Has Google’s Monopoly on the Search Engine Market Finally Timed out? |

John Naughton.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 30 Sept. 2023,

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/30/google-antitrust-us-department-of-

justice-court-case-monopoly.

Voigt, Kai-Ingo, et al. "Beyond the search engine: the case of Google." Business Model

Pioneers: How Innovators Successfully Implement New Business Models (2017): 81-94.
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