EOTO Evolution of Technology

 

Instagram, Google, YouTube, Facebook

One thing that we all can agree on is that there are platforms that we use in our daily lives, and we tend to not think about who owns them. Some of the presentations that I heard from other students were about Instagram, Google, YouTube, and Facebook. All of these companies either are owned by one another or own one another. This is something that has always been mind boggling for me to understand because these successful small companies always end up getting bought out by the bigger ones. Instagram was bought by Facebook in 2012 for 1 billion dollars which seems like a lot now but their value has only skyrocketed since then. What I find interesting is what gives companies like Facebook the knowledge they need to know these companies will be successful in the future. To me it almost seems as if it is a monopoly and the "Big Tech" owns and influences so much.

Google and YouTube

Google began in 1995 by a student working on a research project and the goal was to develop the enabling technologies for a single digital library. The domain became registered in 1997 and it wasn't until 2001 that the first CEO was hired. This small project now has become the biggest search engine and one of the most powerful companies in the world.  YouTube, now owned by Google, started out as a dating site in 2004. Users started to post their own content and that is how the platform became the current YouTube that we know. The rise of YouTube was all started by the users ability to share mostly what they wanted. This platform is one of the more interesting to me because it connects people from all over the world together and of all interests. One of the pages that I see making an impact is a guy who grew up with no father and his goal is to teach kids with no fathers how to do things. His videos are all call "Dad how do I..." I think this shows the impact of YouTube itself and how it can influence people's lives in so many ways. Did Google know the potential of YouTube when it was a dating site? Well the new CEO worked for Google at the time and recommended that Google at least look into it. In 2006 Google Acquired YouTube for $1.65 Billion dollars, in 2019 alone they made 19 billion dollars. I was fortunate enough to be on a call with Sundar Pichai the CEO of Google over the summer and it was interesting to hear what he had to say about everything going on. 

Facebook and Instagram

Instagram was founded in 2010 by and they created the app to have people communicate through images. Two months after it was founded, Instagram had 1 million users on the platform and it wasn't until 2012 that Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion dollars. Facebook now owns more platforms than its competitors and I think that it gives them too much control to alter reality to what they want it to be. I think this was most prevalent in this past election where they influenced and censored opinions that the platform did not agree with. I saw firsthand this election cycle how Facebook used their power to shelter even my own opinions on the platform. It now creates a different approach to political campaigning and the spread of national events. I think this is both a positive and negative aspect of these platforms because it creates a place for people to be attacked for their values above all. 

Do you think that more companies will be bought out by the big companies? Or is it time for them to move over and make room for more platforms to grow? The impact of these companies on our country has been both positive and negative but now causes more debate over how much control they truly have on us as Americans. I am worried to see the control they will have in the future after this past election and the riots that occured. 

Sources

https://fortune.com/2020/02/03/alphabet-youtube-ads-business-q4/

https://tectogizmo.com/share-facebook-instagram-android/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-big-tech-stocks-grow-without-limits-1523032264