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These are all huge companies in my view. In addition to them there are also countless small to medium sized companies that nobody's ever heard of, that don't e
by Tainnor 1y ago
These are all huge companies in my view.
In addition to them there are also countless small to medium sized companies that nobody's ever heard of, that don't experience hypergrowth but have slow and steady growth - especially in the B2B sector. I've worked at some such companies.
- abirch 1y agoSiemens has 330,000 employees. I'd always consider that huge.
- musicale 1y agoOnly twice the size of mega-corps like Apple.
- b112 1y agoAll of this seems reasonable, and I see the value in keeping things competitive. I do have one concern though. Established markets are more entrenched, and hearing that smaller companies may have "slow and steady growth" here seems excellent. Yet emerging markets move incredibly fast, and the goal is to discover those trenches and occupy them. Being held back in such a market can be troublesome. So this is what I'd worry about.
- mattashii 1y ago> Yet emerging markets move incredibly fast, and the goal is to discover those trenches and occupy them. Well, only if you make it a goal to occupy all the trenches. The EU has realized that it does not want all possible trenches occupied. For example: There is a lot of market share to be had in waste disposal by dumping it in the rivers and oceans. Regulation generally prohibits this, because we don't want our rivers and oceans full of waste. Capitalist market self-regulation wouldn't have done this without external pressure (regulation, litigation, etc.) because the capitalist market would externalize all costs if it would increase profits.
- pastage 1y agoBad example. Dumping waste cheaply illegally is a trench that is continuously filled with really bad stuff. Regulations needs more Oumph, it is just too cheap to do in an dishonest way.
- Y-bar 1y agoI agree actually, my use of "medium-sized" was not best, in my personal view a medium-sized company is in the 200-500 employee range. These are definitively larger than that, however I assumed the person I replied to took "medium sized" to mean "significantly smaller than Apple/Google/Amazon/… …but not unknown". Because if I were to pull up a list of thirty unknown actually medium-sized companies pretty much nobody would recognise the names.
- Tainnor 1y agoThese companies may be smaller than FAANG, but I also feel that if BASF disappeared overnight it would have a larger impact on the world than if Facebook disappeared. HN is sometimes incredibly biased towards consumer tech.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- jjaksic 1y agoDefine "impact on the world". Facebook has massive impact (arguably net-negative). I haven't heard of BASF since 5.25 floppies, though I'm sure they produce some very important things. Did you mean positive impact? Physical impact?
- tsimionescu 1y agoAre you working in a business that buys chemical products for manufacturing? If not, why would you interact with BASF? This is exactly what the GP was saying: you're looking at B2C companies as if they matter more, when in reality the vast majority of commerce (but not profits) is B2B.
- FireBeyond 1y agoHmmm, let's see - a lot of the chemicals for polyurethane foams. Ammonia, acetylene, formic acid, butanediol. Engineering plastics used in automotive and electronics applications. Styrenes for same. Automotive OEM and refinish coatings - one of the bigger suppliers. Industrial coatings and paints. Some of the bigger fungicides, herbicides, insecticides. Catalytic converter components, battery components, cathodes, etc.