30 Companies Control One Third of All Internet Traffic

The majority of Internet traffic now goes through direct peers and does not flow through incumbent tier-one telecom networks, according to a recent report from Arbor Networks, which sells network management and security products. Tier-one incumbents were once the chief providers of connectivity between content companies like Google and local or regional broadband providers like Comcast. But over time, Google and other content providers have built out their own infrastructure, connecting more directly to end users and bypassing those tier-one intermediaries. "This is a pretty dramatic shift," said Craig Labovitz, Arbor's chief scientist. The trend coincides with another that Arbor cited in the recent report: the consolidation of companies that control the Internet. About 30 large companies - including Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, which Arbor referred to as "hypergiants" -- control nearly a third of all Internet traffic today. Whereas two years ago it took more than 5,000 companies to handle just half the world's Internet traffic, today that volume is controlled by about 150 companies, Arbor said. Google alone controls 7% of the world's Internet traffic.