4 ms·

People need to stop calling companies “big tech” because every large cap company uses technology in a way that used to be exclusive to one tech industry.

boringg 5y ago
"Big tech" is such a catchall that it almost completely devoid of value.
Retric 5y ago
Nintendo wasn’t a tech company for a long time but it made the switch. The same is true of Intuit, if most of your money comes from directly selling software/computer hardware ... your a tech company. That’s still not true of most large companies like say Walmart or McDonalds which still invest a great deal in technology.
- LeifCarrotson 5y ago
  Obviously Microsoft or Apple is a tech company, they sell software and hardware. It's hard to say whether Intuit sells accounting services or whether they sell software. Is Google a tech company? Probably, but technically they sell advertisements, not software. You could say that they make money by operating ad-selling software. Walmart is a company that makes money by operating purchasing, distribution, and retailing software. An old west General Store owner could, if his records were lost, make a good guess as to what he should by from which big city distributors, when and how much of it to stock, and how much to sell it for, conversely, zero people have a comprehensive understanding of Walmart's product lines, they're just cogs in the software-powered machine that makes the corporation work. Every large company today is dependent on software. I agree that it's a bit absurd to suggest that this means they're all tech companies.
  - andrewaylett 5y ago
    I'd suggest that being "tech company" is in large part cultural mindset. Are they primarily dependant on off-the-shelf software? Possibly not a tech company. Is their software development team bigger than the whole of the rest of the company put together? Probably a tech company. Have the developers convinced everyone else to form squads and hold all the usual agile ceremonies? Don't @ me.
- jwoah12 5y ago
  > it made the switch Nice.
boringg 5y ago
I think OP meant - people forget about the large company Intuit being a business built on an abusive business model enabled by technology. "Big tech" is a pejorative term in this case to trigger a reaction.

boringg 5y ago

"Big tech" is such a catchall that it almost completely devoid of value.

Retric 5y ago

Nintendo wasn’t a tech company for a long time but it made the switch. The same is true of Intuit, if most of your money comes from directly selling software/computer hardware ... your a tech company. That’s still not true of most large companies like say Walmart or McDonalds which still invest a great deal in technology.

LeifCarrotson 5y ago
Obviously Microsoft or Apple is a tech company, they sell software and hardware. It's hard to say whether Intuit sells accounting services or whether they sell software. Is Google a tech company? Probably, but technically they sell advertisements, not software. You could say that they make money by operating ad-selling software. Walmart is a company that makes money by operating purchasing, distribution, and retailing software. An old west General Store owner could, if his records were lost, make a good guess as to what he should by from which big city distributors, when and how much of it to stock, and how much to sell it for, conversely, zero people have a comprehensive understanding of Walmart's product lines, they're just cogs in the software-powered machine that makes the corporation work. Every large company today is dependent on software. I agree that it's a bit absurd to suggest that this means they're all tech companies.
- andrewaylett 5y ago
  I'd suggest that being "tech company" is in large part cultural mindset. Are they primarily dependant on off-the-shelf software? Possibly not a tech company. Is their software development team bigger than the whole of the rest of the company put together? Probably a tech company. Have the developers convinced everyone else to form squads and hold all the usual agile ceremonies? Don't @ me.
jwoah12 5y ago
> it made the switch Nice.

boringg 5y ago

I think OP meant - people forget about the large company Intuit being a business built on an abusive business model enabled by technology. "Big tech" is a pejorative term in this case to trigger a reaction.