4 ms·

This seems unlikely. It's more likely it will continue to grow, but probably not as much as Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon.

adventured 7y ago
I agree with that. They'll slow considerably, not collapse. The stagnation of their growth is basically inevitable, considering they'll be hitting $200 billion in annual sales soon (two more fiscal years). Right now there are seven companies in the US over $200b in sales. Globally there are 17 total over that line (seven of them are essentially state-backed energy companies). None of them are growing at a consequential real rate other than Amazon.
cryptica 7y ago
A more likely scenario is that Google will fund an army of bloggers and lobbyists to create propaganda to make regulators forget the fact that they have a monopoly. Then Google will keep extracting rents from corporations in return for allowing those corporations to maintain top rankings in Google search results. In this environment, small companies will struggle to compete for user attention because they cannot afford a large enough advertising budget to be in the top rankings for any significant keyword even at a local level. CPC is prohibitively high. The Federal Reserve banks of the world keep printing fiat money out of thin air and injecting it into government bonds which governments then spend on enormous consulting contracts and other useless government services offered by these corporations. This 'free money' essentially flowing directly from the Fed to governments to corporations allows corporations to increase their advertising budgets beyond any reasonable economic measure. Small companies start dying like flies; in this environment which is adverse to small companies (where exposure to customers is prohibitively expensive and where big government contracts are out of reach), big corporations will discover that they can significantly cut back on the quality of their products and use a portion of the savings to further increase their exposure and rankings on Google. This creates a vicious cycle where products keep getting worse, but corporations keep getting stronger and customer acquisition costs keep going up. Eventually, all small companies are dead. Everyone in the world is employed by a corporation. Governments start introducing laws to allow corporations to fire employees who vote for political candidates which the corporation does not approve. Corporations share data with each other so getting fired from a corporation means instant homelessness for the individual; they will never find a job again. Family members will receive a warning from their own jobs if a relative is fired. Corporations then move to have the minimum wage abolished. Corporations then start paying employees with accomodation and food instead of money; they make the case that doing so makes the system more efficient overall and that this is for the good of everyone.

adventured 7y ago

I agree with that. They'll slow considerably, not collapse. The stagnation of their growth is basically inevitable, considering they'll be hitting $200 billion in annual sales soon (two more fiscal years). Right now there are seven companies in the US over $200b in sales. Globally there are 17 total over that line (seven of them are essentially state-backed energy companies). None of them are growing at a consequential real rate other than Amazon.

cryptica 7y ago

A more likely scenario is that Google will fund an army of bloggers and lobbyists to create propaganda to make regulators forget the fact that they have a monopoly. Then Google will keep extracting rents from corporations in return for allowing those corporations to maintain top rankings in Google search results. In this environment, small companies will struggle to compete for user attention because they cannot afford a large enough advertising budget to be in the top rankings for any significant keyword even at a local level. CPC is prohibitively high. The Federal Reserve banks of the world keep printing fiat money out of thin air and injecting it into government bonds which governments then spend on enormous consulting contracts and other useless government services offered by these corporations. This 'free money' essentially flowing directly from the Fed to governments to corporations allows corporations to increase their advertising budgets beyond any reasonable economic measure. Small companies start dying like flies; in this environment which is adverse to small companies (where exposure to customers is prohibitively expensive and where big government contracts are out of reach), big corporations will discover that they can significantly cut back on the quality of their products and use a portion of the savings to further increase their exposure and rankings on Google. This creates a vicious cycle where products keep getting worse, but corporations keep getting stronger and customer acquisition costs keep going up. Eventually, all small companies are dead. Everyone in the world is employed by a corporation. Governments start introducing laws to allow corporations to fire employees who vote for political candidates which the corporation does not approve. Corporations share data with each other so getting fired from a corporation means instant homelessness for the individual; they will never find a job again. Family members will receive a warning from their own jobs if a relative is fired. Corporations then move to have the minimum wage abolished. Corporations then start paying employees with accomodation and food instead of money; they make the case that doing so makes the system more efficient overall and that this is for the good of everyone.