Economist: The four giants of Science and Technology staged "game of Power"

Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are the four big players in the Internet world today, and they are young and financially strong, breaking business boundaries to compete, but only by doing everything Can become a real king in the Internet field.

The following are the main elements of the Economist's article:

In this singular and changing field, there is an epic tribal war, which is an invasion and siege, conspiracy and betrayal, Battlefield glory and the crafty and slippery legends.

George (George R.R Martin) 's series of fantasy novels began with the Game of Thrones (A Game of Thrones), which HBO has already remade as a TV show. This series of novels depicts an exotic world in which the scientific community is imaginative, an immersion experience. But in today's world, this evasion infects a terrible degree of recognition. Silicon Valley has neither the Raptors nor the wolves, but Martin's depiction of the Lost King is reminiscent of today's technology industry, where the four largest companies, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, dominate the consumer-Internet arena, and the boundaries between them are widening. Last year's death of Apple's helm, Steve Jobs, was the most likely to be dashed by hopes of taking over the throne. But even before Mr. Jobs died, tensions between the big companies had escalated, as the balance of power before mobile computing began to break.

The technology industry has a history of brutal confrontation: IBM and Apple in the 80 's, Microsoft and Netscape in the late 90. But the current market confrontation is richer and more complex, not least because they have a certain advantage. Of the four companies, three are still managed by founders who have made billions of of dollars, or by co-founder, such as Jeffer Besos of Amazon (Jeff Bezos), Larry Page of Google, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg). In addition, although jobs is no longer in charge of Apple, he has trained his successor, Tim Cook, as CEO. "We have never seen such a dedicated CEO and founder Group in the modern world of science and technology," said Mary Meeker, a venture capital firm Kleiner partner Meeker. ”

The industry has never seen such a young and elliptical company, and it has the wherewithal to do so, and the oldest apple of the four companies was founded in 1976. Each company has a strong business model. Google has turned search into a huge profit tool by incorporating ads. Facebook also wants to use people's interests and relationships to achieve similar goals. Amazon makes it cheap and convenient to buy physical goods and digital content online. Apple earns its fill by selling beautiful electronics at a higher price.

It also allows companies to enrich their cash in their arsenal. They needed the cash, and all four companies grew up in the era of desktop and notebook computing, and now, as Martin described as "Winter is coming," their world has undergone great changes.

Major data list of Big Four

Mobile phone Equipment

As the internet moves to mobile phones, software is controlled by the cloud, and the boundaries between the original regions and strategies are increasingly blurred. Threats and opportunities have prompted four companies to use their cash and intelligence to shock other areas, sometimes into wasteland, and sometimes into areas dominated by other companies. And they are not all companies involved in competition.

Many successful startups, such as Twitter in the microblogging field, or square in mobile payments, want to open up their own world, either by one of four big companies or by building their own power. They also have an ancient empire to confront, that is, Microsoft, which relies mainly on PC software, has recently launched its own tablet computer to try to return to the game center. But competition among the four companies will have the greatest impact on the future of people looking for information, consuming content and buying goods.

The battlefield of four companies, like most battlefields, is confusing and confusing. And the battlefield is diverse. Apple and Google have played in the area of smartphones and tablet operating systems, with two companies in the hardware sector, Google and Facebook as mortal enemies in social networks, and a number of companies dabbling in E-commerce, which has always been an inherent territory of the Amazon.

Each of them has a territory that needs to be maintained. Google's search engine, for example, is its own heartland, and the company continues to invest and refine its search algorithms. In addition, Google has added other search services, such as the acquisition of ITA Software, a company that provides flights and other travel information.

Only by being exhaustive can we become the real kings of the Internet field.

Search engines and foreign siege

It is not easy to snatch the lucrative business from Google, but other internet giants want to try. Perhaps the biggest threat comes from Apple. Two companies have had the friendliest relationship in the technology industry in the past, when, in fact, Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, also served on Apple's board from 2006 to 2009. Now, two companies are caught in fierce competition.

At the heart of this is the rivalry between Apple's iOS mobile operating system and Google's Android, which supports iphones and ipad tablets, while Android is being used by a number of smartphone makers such as Samsung and HTC. As a strategic move, Google bought Android developers in 2005 when it feared its search engine and other services would be squeezed out by potential rivals ' mobile devices. Google then made Android a powerful competitor to iOS. Global smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2012 were 181 million, while Android accounted for Three-fourths, according to IDC, a market research firm. Google says it activates 1.3 million of Android devices every day.

For Apple, Android's open-source approach is like a war manifesto, and Jobs has angrily expressed his desire to launch a "thermonuclear war" to destroy Android. Apple's Siri voice control assistant is an offense, a new search engine that can answer people's questions in mobile. Earlier this year, Apple also made a controversial decision to take Google Maps off the iOS system and replace it with its own, but flawed, map product. It's an attempt to be independent of Google.

Some experts believe that Amazon also poses a certain threat to Google in this area. "Google used to be like a federated, he led people to Amazon," said John Battelle, the founder of John Batle Media and senior analyst at Silicon Valley. And now people are increasingly bypassing Google, going directly to Amazon, looking for and buying goods. He cited an example. Forrester, a market-research firm, estimates that 30% of AOL's buyers are starting their own searches on Amazon. There are rumors that Facebook is also developing search products around social concepts. Mark Zuckerberg said at a recent meeting that because users look for friends and other information on Facebook, the social networking site "Handles 1 billion of search requests a day, and we haven't even started trying."

Apple, while battling Google, is also fighting Amazon in another battle to see who can be the best online content provider. After the ipod, Apple unexpectedly made a big push for content in the itunes digital music store, pushing hardware sales and vice versa, a successful strategy that also opened up the battle between Apple and Amazon. In the middle of the 90, Amazon started by selling books and soon began selling a variety of goods, first on CDs and DVDs, and now in the fields of clothing and kitchenware. Last year, however, 37% of Amazon's 48 billion-dollar revenue came from media content, both physical and digital.

So far, the most intense competition between the two is the E-book market. Last year, Amazon accounted for two-thirds of American E-book downloads, and Apple only accounted for 5%, but Apple has launched aggressive strategies to offer publishers more freedom to price e-books and lure them off the Amazon platform. In the digital music world, in contrast, Amazon's cloud player music service is trying to get a slice of Apple's huge market share of itunes. In the video arena, two companies are competing with Netflix, which has successfully transformed from a DVD rental provider to a streaming video service provider.

Content Master

So far, Facebook and Google have invested less in these competitions, but two companies are aware of the importance of these markets. Facebook's strategy is to put a social imprint on the content of other companies that have teamed up with streaming video service Netflix and streaming media music service Spotify, so users can share the video or music they have seen with their friends. Google's YouTube dominates users ' own video, but the company has not developed Amazon's digital billing model or business like Apple's itunes. This March, Google eventually integrated music, e-books and other businesses to create a new Google Play store, but Google's expansion in other areas is not always as successful as Android. It has launched several attacks on Facebook's social sphere, but with little success.

Google has added Android mobile apps to Google's Play store, and other giants have their own apps to choose from. This is an important way for them to fight each other, to see who can provide the best mobile experience.

There is also a triangular battle between Apple, Amazon and Google, all of which combine mobile devices, operating systems and app stores. Apple took the lead by recognising the power of these platforms and integrating ipods and itunes. Apple's iphone margins are so high that market research firm ASYMCO estimates that Apple seized 60% of the handset industry's profits in the third quarter of 2012, when it accounted for 16% per cent of its handset shipments.

But Apple has found that its rivals have radically different ways of making money. Amazon has launched a Kindle E-reader and Tablet PC with a custom version of the Android system, and these products are priced at no higher cost. Apple uses itunes to sell ipods, and Amazon uses hardware devices such as tablets to sell all kinds of goods in the world.

Bone Sense Reality

Google's platform plan is not clear. At first, Google seemed content to have other manufacturers to produce Android phones and tablets, but by 2011, Google decided to spend 12.5 billion of dollars to buy Motorola Mobility. Google has started selling its own-brand Tablet PC, a nexus of Asus and Samsung, and recently started selling cheap laptops with chrome operating systems. Most analysts believe that Google will gradually expand the market for cheap equipment, hoping that users can use their search services on these devices, so as to boost the advertising business.

The next thing to say is an empire in dire straits. Microsoft, which ranks second in the US market after Google, has a Nokia and a new mobile operating system. The Surface tablet, which carries the system, has built a new platform for itself. Like the nobles in exile eager to regain the throne, Microsoft is eager to reinvent itself.

So far, Facebook has been neutral, but Facebook is not a spectator in creating the best digital shopping experience for consumers. Winning the fight means capturing territory from Amazon. Facebook Gifts is a brand new service that has made full use of its knowledge of user interests and relationships, encouraging them to buy and present gifts at the right time, such as birthdays. To push the business forward, Facebook bought a social gift-giving company karma and reached partnerships with more than 100 companies such as Starbucks and chocolate maker Lindt.

Google is also experimenting with a service that allows users to find and order items online, and then pay an ordinary fee for delivery within a day. It seems similar to Amazon's Prime service, which is a huge success for the prime services that can be enjoyed in the United States every year with just 79 dollars. Instead of replicating Amazon's huge warehousing network, Google is working with shipping companies and retailers. But if Google really wants to challenge Amazon, it will eventually need to buy a logistics company. UPS has a market value of $69 billion trillion, less than One-third of Google's and less than twice times that of Google's cash reserves.

Platforms are like weapons in this melee, and companies want to consolidate their own territory and conquer new frontiers. The patent is the weapon they stabbed each other directly. Some lawsuits have been initiated by patent rogues (patent Troll), which specialize in collecting patents rather than developing specific products, but there are also lawsuits initiated by giant companies or their agents, specifically targeting another giant. Apple has been seeking patent lawsuits everywhere in the smartphone world, and Google's move to buy Motorola is also an important reason for acquiring thousands of its patented assets, thereby enhancing its defensive capabilities and offensive firepower in patent competition.

Each quarter, the battlefield between these companies will expand several times, from the digital wallet to the cloud, so it is difficult to adjust the strategy only according to tactical setbacks. Today's failure may contain the fruits of future success. Google's latest attack on Facebook is inherently inadequate. Apple's challenge to Google Maps is clearly not well prepared. But if Google wants to make progress in social networking, Apple wants to make a breakthrough in location-based services, and they all have to try and get at least some positions. The challenge is to be nimble in skipping the initial disappointment and moving towards success.

No one can succeed quickly. Sequoia Capital's VCs Royleve Bota (Roelof Botha) said: "There will be a lot of battle." "This may be good news for consumers because they will have a wider range of innovative and inexpensive technologies to choose from," he said. Of course, as competition escalates, companies may be more cautious about protecting their core positions or using foul tactics to attack others. This requires a regulatory presence. Adam Thierer, a researcher at George Mason University, Adam Thierre University, said: "You will see the regulator launch an empire counterattack." ”

Other aspects

Regulators in Europe and the US have been investigating whether Apple has conspired with publishers to disrupt Amazon's control of the E-book market. Some companies, including some close to Microsoft, accuse Google of unfairly promoting its services in search results, such as the Google + social network. They also claim that Google uses its competitor's content without permission and has reached an anti-competitive deal in search advertising. There are also accusations that Google is using smart-phone patents to curb competition. Google's lawyers ' team is struggling with the charges.

So the helm of the four companies, Mr. Page, Cook, Zuckerberg and Bezos, need to map out a roadmap for their companies to cross these dangerous legal and regulatory areas. At the same time, they must avoid losing their bearings in the competition, and Microsoft has lost a lot of ground because of its confrontation with the mighty Justice Department. Also, shareholders eager to gain gains in a weak global economy must be satisfied.

The king who can do all these things can become a true monarch, but the odds of this stand out are slim. As with the novel, these battles and plots are bound to emerge.