To trace Big Tech competition, follow the money

How Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft make their revenue today shapes the battles they will fight tomorrow. For years, the largest tech companies each had their own fiefdom where they garnered the lion's share of revenue and profits. While tech companies competed at the edges, the market was big enough that each had plenty of green fields to expand into. They might step on each other's toes, but they took pains — and sometimes struck deals — to steer clear of the others' core businesses. However, as they have each become enormous, their search for growth has begun leading them onto one another's turf. Amazon and Apple, for example, are getting more revenue than ever from advertising — the heart of Google's and Facebook's business. Bottom line: Competition among these companies is increasingly a global affair, as the search for growth draws them onto terrain outside the U.S. where they face big challenges based on culture, language and economics. Additionally, given geopolitical tensions between the US and China, these US-based companies can appeal to nationalist sentiments to thwart regulators ability to rein in their power. "Hurt us, they argue, and you'll hurt America."