The information age has seen major players come and go, with Microsoft and IBM’s 1990s dominance replaced by smart technology and social media upstarts that fast became part of the furniture.
Facebook and Google have emerged as the two largest players in the social media world in the past decade, growing to overall valuations larger than anyone could have fathomed even a few years ago.
Snapping up apps and key operators for eye-watering sums of money – Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp for US$19bn, for example, or Google’s purchase of YouTube for US$1.6bn as far back as 2006 – have seen the two behemoths evolve into a direct rivalry.
Sure, Google has acquired triple the companies that Facebook has gone for, but clever purchases by the latter – like the previously mentioned WhatsApp (solidifying social communications) and Oculus Rift (getting a fine helping hand into tomorrow’s boom industry, virtual reality) – levels the playing field somewhat.
This fine infographic from Who Is Hosting This lists just how significant both companies have become. One wonders what the next few years have in hold, and weather other companies like Apple grow further entwined into this consolidation fuelled battle for supremacy.
Google and Facebook image, via Shutterstock
