MEMO

Case study: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google 2018

Student: Nikola Milivojevic

1. Summary of the business environment in which the focal companies find themselves

After 1995, the United States government privatized the Internet. Before that it was used only for
defense purposes. As a result, the world has entered in an innovation era, which focused heavily
on marketing and advertising. By 2018, the Internet became the core of the marketing practice.
There are four particular companies, which combined together, make up for a market
capitalization of $3 trillion: Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple. These companies cover four
different aspects of the internet marketing. Amazon dominates the online retail, Google – the
online advertising, Apple – the interface devices, and Facebook – the social media engagement.
The four companies are in constant fierce competition trying to replace one another and to
become the dominant marketing platform, both online and offline.
Throughout the years, the digital media channels such as video and mobile search platforms have
replaced from the premium spot the analog media in the face of broadcast television, magazines,
and newspapers. As a result, the advertisers shifted their interest to the digital media and the
analog channels saw decline of interest. The search engine became more used than any other
type of software worldwide. The mobile searches became more common that the desktop
searches and while the number of mobile searches grew, the desktop searches declined. Although
most retail sales in the United States still happened offline, a lot of the retail transactions
involved an online search. It could be presumed that about half of the retail transactions involved
the Internet one way or another. The digital revolution brought by Amazon, Google, Facebook,
and Apple

2. Major issues that the focal companies are facing

As the four giant companies are doing everything to hook more customers to their platforms,
people are becoming more afraid of the influence that those companies have on their lives,
choices, privacy, and others. Some small direct-to-consumer companies are starting to see rise as
they summon clients, to which they sell directly.
One of the biggest issues before the four companies is the growth of new privacy regulations
globally. These new laws may bring down the entire current model of the present digital
marketing and advertising empire. As a result, it is possible that at some point publishers like
online newspapers, video platforms, and others need to make a choice on whether to collaborate
or compete with the four giant companies.