This is a fine way to think about companies that aren't taking a slice of transactions in a market. For instance, Tesla is a car company. They make cars and se

This is a fine way to think about companies that aren't taking a slice of transactions in a market. For instance, Tesla is a car company. They make cars and sell them. Dropbox is an online storage service. You pay them to hold on to your stuff. But what kind of company is the New York Stock Exchange? Is it a stock company because equities are traded on the market that it provides? I wouldn't describe it that way. Google is closer to a marketplace than most people realize. One of the most generic marketplaces ever built. It connects people looking for information with the information they seek. They take a cut from transactions where the information wanted relates to a commercial product. So it's not really appropriate to call Google an advertising company. They are a market maker for the world's information.