The Golden Age of Technology (1/2)
Five tech behemoths play a fair game in virtuous cycle
During 1990’s, NFL celebrated an America’s team in three decades of its history. The history was marked by Dallas Cowboy as everybody knows that it is the team of America. They set the impressive record of three-time champions in Super Bowl. Without any doubt, it is an era of the league, the team, and the talents of Irving Texas. Among unparalleled arsenals in the offensive depth chart, one man stood very high. It is worth mentioning that this player contributed more than any distinguished players to the winning record of the decade. The man is Emmitt Smith (51), the running back of Dallas Cowboys from 1990 to 2002.
His rivalry resided in the counterpart in the northeastern part of the league. The competition resembles its winning record in the regular season, which began three years earlier in 1998. The running back of Buffalo Bills, Thurman Thomas, led Bills in the four consecutive appearance of Super Bowl. It was an undisputable theory among football fans that if you want a good team in NFL, you want a good running back. When a rusher exceeds the 1,000 mark in a total of 16 games on Sundays, the team has a winning season. How do both men achieve the impeccable records in separate teams?
Emmitt Smith and Thurman Thomas were friends. They met each other to practice offensive running play and polished their skills to move the ball forward as far as they could and as often as they could. The results come in a form of mutual benefits for collective dominance for both Cowboys and Bills in 1990’s. No other teams excelled in terms of winning record and personal running figures. During 1990’s, Bills appeared four times and Dallas won three Super Bowl rings. This could have something to do with business.
A late episode of The Economist illustrates duels of five technology giants, GAFAM. Combined with other five tech behemoths, GAFAM have been more powerful than ever in the latest technology. In 2020, the top ten biggest companies generated $1.6trn in revenues and $126bn in net profits. The combined market capitalization swelled by $3.9trn, exceeding the stock value of British stock market. How is it possible? For one thing, the pandemic of corona virus confines most people in a remote environment for socially distant work, entertainment, and shopping. For another reason, the British newspaper presumes that five tech behemoths stay out of each other to engage in a fair play for collisions. The newspaper simultaneously argues the other aspect of business relations between them, helping each business partner to perpetuate their monopolistic positions in the markets.
The sight of technology firms is obscure. The story illuminates fragmented facts of collusion and collisions. That is the title of the coverage. Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, label the situation at “80:20” leaning to in favor of competition versus cooperation. One out of five times in values, Silicon Valley firms engage in mutual benefits for collective dominance. Google agrees to pay Apple between $8bn and $12bn a year, which is a fifth of Apple’s global profits. Google also arranged with Facebook that the social media platform exclusively supports the online advertiser in the top search engine and booked a sweat deal to keep a rival ad system off the digital social website. Do they compete with each other or cooperate for monopoly?
It is too blur to conclude the anti-trust case. But one thing in common among five tech titans is that they have extremely ambitious growth plans which investors support and expect them to grow further in years to come. The stock market valuation ranges from 25 to 82 times annual earnings. That is a good sign of winners. Do GAFAM compete with each other to sustain a free market and not to violate anti-trust laws? Your writer will answer this next week.