The indestructible Gafam

Audio 03:50

Despite numerous sanctions in 2021, the Gafam continue to develop.

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By: Ariane Gaffuri Follow

3 min

In the rearview mirror of the year 2021, the American tech giants, the Gafam, acronyms for Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. 

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In 2021, the Gafams had to face numerous sanctions, which do not seem able to stop them. 

The Europeans are trying to put an end to their omnipotence with regulations and sanctions. Recently

for abuse of a dominant position. Ditto for Apple in France. Google, which concentrates 93% of global Internet searches, has been ordered to pay more than 8 billion euros to the European Union for its practices deemed anti-competitive. Even the American authorities, who have given them a free rein and allowed their expansion, are trying to bring them to heel. But these sanctions do not seem to intimidate these steadfast behemoths. Imagine, together they represent almost 10 trillion dollars of market capitalization, it is almost the gross domestic product of Europe! 

How do the Gafams manage to maintain their dominance? 

They are based on the economic model that made their existence possible: to always be one step ahead and to diversify.

This is what explains Jean-François Faure, CEO of Aucoffre.com.

In the beginning, each company had its own market: internet search advertising for Google and social media advertising for Facebook, e-commerce for Amazon, computers for Apple. 

But today, the giants of Silicon Valley are seizing other industries.

Faced with the rapid development of Netflix, the streaming service for films and television series, Apple and Amazon have created their own content offerings, for example.

No question of letting him gain ground. 

And if a competitor wins, they pull out the checkbook and nip it in the bud.

for nearly $ 20 billion as well as Instagram.

Microsoft spent $ 26 billion to acquire LinkedIn, the professional social network.

Apple buys a digital company every three weeks on average to stay ahead of the curve.

Google bought YouTube, a video platform more watched than television. 

The Gafams also go where they are not expected.

It's the autonomous or electric car for Apple, rockets in space for Amazon, the metaverse for Facebook,

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They are also in finance, health or the food sector.

They take advantage of delays in sectors that are dematerialized to extend their web.

This allows them to be present at all levels of the experience offered to billions of users.

The means of collecting personal data on their private life: their income, their consumption habits, a gold mine.

They even manage to circumvent obstacles and prohibitions. The champion in this area is Facebook. He was denied the creation of his own cryptocurrency, Libra. He therefore intends to launch it in the Metaverse that he wants to develop. The Metaverse is this virtual world, in which we can, in the form of an avatar, work, see our loved ones, go shopping or play sports. In one of its worst reputation crises, Facebook, which has 3 billion users, had to give up facial recognition and delete the data of a billion of them. But he intends to move in the virtual world what he is forbidden in the real world.

The Gafams have more than one trick up their sleeve.

Only a technological breakthrough or consumer weariness could reshuffle the cards.

But it's hard to imagine a daily life without internet, smartphone or home delivery. 

We must not forget the competition from the Chinese tech giants, the BATX, acronym for Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi, which are developing internationally and which could give them a cold sweat.

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