Big Tech, also known as the Tech Giants, refers to the most dominant information technology companies. The term most often refers to American technology companies, notably the five largest: Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft. Globally, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi (BATX) are the Chinese equivalent of the Big Five. Big Tech can also include smaller tech companies with high valuations, such as Netflix, or non-tech companies with high-tech practices, such as the automaker Tesla.The concept of Big Tech is analogous to the consolidation of market dominance by a few companies in other market sectors, such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan in investment banking, the Big Three consulting firms, Big Oil, and Big Media.
Background
The term "Big Tech" first appeared in media reports around 2013, as some economists saw signs of these companies becoming dominant with little regulation. After the late-1990s dot-com bubble wiped out most of the Nasdaq Composite stock market index, surviving technology companies expanded their market share and could no longer...