I can't tell you it's the same cause, but you can see this phenomenon in many industries, such as entertainment. After WWII, the U.S. was the only wealthy count

I can't tell you it's the same cause, but you can see this phenomenon in many industries, such as entertainment. After WWII, the U.S. was the only wealthy country left untouched and it dominated the world. Around half of world GDP was produced in the U.S. (an astounding number); all the leading scholars and scientists had moved to the U.S. (for example, think of the language and the location of pre- and post-WWII physics); the U.S. also became the world's dominant military and political power, as well as the leading cultural power (from democracy and human rights to Hollywood films to jazz to Elvis). As a result, if you wanted to be a world leader in almost anything, you had to do it in the U.S. Also, the international language of (seemingly) everything became English, from science to, importantly in this context, computer code. When a Finnish graduate student created his new operating system, the code and his announcement were in English. Assuming you are a native English-speaker, imagine if programming languages, HTML, and network traffic were in French - how many fewer English-speakers would step over that hurdle and learn to code, to hack? How many teenagers would give it a try out of curiosity if they have to learn another language to do it? Imagine you are a French musician; what is the chance that a song you record in French will be heard in the U.S. or worldwide? Ever hear a French song in the U.S.? See French musicians on major tours in the U.S.? Can Americans name one French musician? But can people in France name American musicians? Do English-speaking U.S. musicians tour France? All the time, AFAIK. Those things persist today, U.S. businesses still have an economic advantage; they can sell to an internal market of 320 million people, all in one language - and at ~$19 trillion annual GDP the largest internal market in the world by far (not counting the EU, which is a complicated topic). Then they can sell to another 100 million+ in other wealthy, English-speaking countries, and then to the rest of the world accustomed to hearing pop songs in English and watching movies in English. A French business has similar access to 60 million, plus part of Canada. IME, Americans often don't realize how the modern world was built around them.