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> At the end of January 2018, the seven largest-cap stocks in the world were all tech fliers: Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Tencent, and Alibaba

> At the end of January 2018, the seven largest-cap stocks in the world were all tech fliers: Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Tencent, and Alibaba. Arguably we're just bucketing companies poorly. "Tech" isn't a commodity, clientele, or business model. We don't group companies based on the fact that they notably have physical storefronts. Otherwise H&M, Ford, H&R Block, and McDonald's would all be in the "brick and mortar" sector. If the trend is "software is eating the world", it stands to reason that the market will be more and more "tech" over time.

LMYahooTFY 9y ago
"Tech" is a colloquial term that I wouldn't think needs much explanation on HN. As far as I've ever heard, "Brick and Mortar" has never referred to an industry. It's just an adjective for business that has a store front on a street. And we actually do group them in this regard, it simply isn't relevant all of the time.
- sp332 9y ago
  The point is that Facebook and Amazon are not really in the same industry either.
  - humanrebar 9y ago
    Right. Facebook and Google? Yes. Amazon and Alibaba? You could make an argument for that. Facebook and Alibaba? Probably not.
  - LMYahooTFY 9y ago
    They're not all within the "Technology Sector"? I understand the nuance, and Amazon is a black swan that we could debate endlessly. Isn't the more relevant consideration here how they're categorized in market/investment terms?
    - kgwgk 9y ago
      Actually Amazon is classified as Consumer Discretionary. It represents over 20% of the SPDR Consumer Discretionary ETF (XLY).
    - UncleMeat 9y ago
      One sells products to consumers and has a massive cloud platform. One is a social networking application that makes its money selling ads. They both employ a lot of software engineers and have big datacenters but it becomes increasingly less meaningful to bucket them together.
sanderjd 9y ago
Yep. It seems akin to grouping Standard Oil and US Steel because they both got big riding the industrialization wave. The grouping isn't one of market segment, it's one of over-arching society-wide trend. Nowadays companies in different market segments are getting big riding a computerization wave.
jgtrosh 9y ago
It is, however, often easier for tech companies to suddenly expand to a very different type of business. Recently, Facebook started its local market service. More famously, Apple records granted Apple computers right to use the same name under the condition they (obviously) didn't enter the music industry—at some point they became the biggest music company worldwide. It also happens in other industries, but it's either slowed down by development costs or enabled by technological progress.

LMYahooTFY 9y ago

"Tech" is a colloquial term that I wouldn't think needs much explanation on HN. As far as I've ever heard, "Brick and Mortar" has never referred to an industry. It's just an adjective for business that has a store front on a street. And we actually do group them in this regard, it simply isn't relevant all of the time.

sp332 9y ago
The point is that Facebook and Amazon are not really in the same industry either.
- humanrebar 9y ago
  Right. Facebook and Google? Yes. Amazon and Alibaba? You could make an argument for that. Facebook and Alibaba? Probably not.
- LMYahooTFY 9y ago
  They're not all within the "Technology Sector"? I understand the nuance, and Amazon is a black swan that we could debate endlessly. Isn't the more relevant consideration here how they're categorized in market/investment terms?
  - kgwgk 9y ago
    Actually Amazon is classified as Consumer Discretionary. It represents over 20% of the SPDR Consumer Discretionary ETF (XLY).
  - UncleMeat 9y ago
    One sells products to consumers and has a massive cloud platform. One is a social networking application that makes its money selling ads. They both employ a lot of software engineers and have big datacenters but it becomes increasingly less meaningful to bucket them together.

sanderjd 9y ago

Yep. It seems akin to grouping Standard Oil and US Steel because they both got big riding the industrialization wave. The grouping isn't one of market segment, it's one of over-arching society-wide trend. Nowadays companies in different market segments are getting big riding a computerization wave.

jgtrosh 9y ago

It is, however, often easier for tech companies to suddenly expand to a very different type of business. Recently, Facebook started its local market service. More famously, Apple records granted Apple computers right to use the same name under the condition they (obviously) didn't enter the music industry—at some point they became the biggest music company worldwide. It also happens in other industries, but it's either slowed down by development costs or enabled by technological progress.