10 Years of Big Tech Diversification

Let’s do the 10-year challenge for FAMGA (Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple).

In 2010...

Apple was on its way to a mobile device empire. Google had won search and was branching out into new online services. Amazon had built its beachhead in ecommerce and had a cloud computing glimmer in its eye.

Facebook, which had just turned profitable in 2009, was still preparing for social network world domination. The incumbent Microsoft, meanwhile, lost the title of world’s most valuable tech company to Apple. It fittingly unveiled a new slogan, “Be What’s Next.”

And for every famga, there's a bat. China’s BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) were carving out their own fiefdoms in search, ecommerce, and social, respectively.

In 2020

Each player still has its niches, but they’re all AI companies now. And there’s lots of activity in other emerging technologies:

• Cloud: Amazon, Microsoft, Google
• Wearables: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook
• Smart home: Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook
• Voice: the whole club
• AR/VR: Facebook, Microsoft, Apple
• Self-driving: Google, Amazon, Apple
• Robotics: Amazon, Microsoft, Google
• Streaming video games: Microsoft, Google, Amazon
• Satellites: Amazon, Facebook, Apple
• Quantum computing: Google, Microsoft
• Drones: Amazon, Google
• Digital currency: Facebook

Bottom line

FAMGA is diversifying across new technologies, hoping some of these bets will become the next big hit.

Amazon Web Services and the Apple Watch are shining examples of how companies built a core business pillar by investing in new technology. Some offerings, like smart devices and voice assistants, already have widespread market penetration.

But many of these efforts, such as AR devices, are still experimental. Others (VR) are still in the very early adopter phase. At the end of the day, we don't know what will come of FAMGA's new tech pursuits. In fact, we don't even know if the FAMGA acronym will stick around.