Are the "Frightful Five" really that scary?

The "Frightful Five" are the major tech companies Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Alphabet (aka Google). They are known for being huge, gatekeepers, and relentlessly focused on their market share. Their name describes their influence and power in the tech industry. Farhad Manjoo, a writing for the New York Times, thinks they are more. they've become kind of more like governments than companies with the amount of money they have, with the kind of power they have over democracy in society." Apparently, if you live a "normal" American life, it's impossible to live without some of these companies. And it's more than just being addicted to stalking your ex-boyfriend on Facebook.

Office capabilities (communication, real-time collaboration, storage, office suite) require either a Microsoft365 license or a combination of multiple tools; financially benefitting (directly or indirectly) the same ‘Frightful Five.’ Cloud computing and content delivery heavily relies on Amazon and Microsoft, with Google fighting hard for a larger share. Selling, delivering, and marketing your products at scale is going to be very hard without Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google. Yes, more companies might join the club, but it's very unlikely that any of the existing members might lose their position. In fact, most of these companies came out with platforms that startups have to use to get costumers. So, in a way, the entrance of a new company is just profiting the "Frightful Five".

Their dominance has gained attention from groups who say that their market power is harming competition and the economy. For the past decade, US Regulators have pretty much just let these companies do their thing, which allowed them they to pretty much engulf all other tech companies or enter new markets. Bloomberg data shows that in the last 10 years, the "Frightful Five" have made close to 500 acquisitions, worth about $140 billion. According to Bloomberg, Amazon receives about 93% of all eBook sales and Google pulls in about 78% of internet search ad spending in the US. But being a monopoly isn't illegal in the US, yet. Some say US regulators have become too timid. But of course, the "Frightful Five" like to disagree.

Could anything threaten these companies? Speculating about the most likely sources of downfall for the current five, the article pointed to either government regulation, the companies’ own overextension, or an emergence of companies in China that would grow independently from these established players. So how does the play out? Will the "Frightful Five" just stifle all new competition? Probably. Guess we will have to find out. As Google likes to point out, "Competiton is just one click away."