They seem unstoppable.

Like Microsoft at the turn of the millennium, whose Internet Explorer completely took over the browser market and killed Netscape, which previously had 90% of customers.

In 1998, Microsoft stood trial, sued by the US Department of Justice for violating competition law.

The US government claimed that by pre-installing Explorer in all PCs with Microsoft's Windows operating system, the company abused its dominant position to knock off the legs of competitors.

The case ended in a settlement.

Microsoft's Explorer peaked at over 90% market share.

Who could threaten them?

A company that was barely founded when Microsoft was in court: Google.

Today, their Chrome has almost two-thirds of the global browser market, while Microsoft has to settle for a single percent.

Today, Google has almost 95% market share for search engines, while Microsoft is chewing the crumbs that are left over together with the other pit competitors.

Google will soon be on trial for monopoly.

It thus takes 20 years to go from upstart to domination.

Apple has given up

The US Department of Justice's lawsuit against Google is like a copy of the Microsoft case: Google is accused of consolidating its dominant position by having its search engine pre-installed on hardware.

Among other things, through a gold-edged agreement with Apple, which reportedly will receive up to 12 billion dollars a year (equivalent to one-fifth of Apple's total net profit!) To ensure that all searches in Apple products take place with Google.

Apple has given up on developing a search engine that could compete with Google's, but still makes good money by allying with them.

In another lawsuit, Google is accused of splitting the advertising market between itself and Facebook.

Amazon is of course under scrutiny as well, with regulators in both Washington and Brussels who in the founder Jezz Bezos see a wholesaler who risks becoming the only dealer left in the village, if his business is allowed to grow unchecked.

But is it illegal to be overwhelming?

No, that's not enough.

You must deliberately abuse that position to risk anything in court.

Expect that "United States VS Google" will take several years to process.

"Populist to hit Big Tech"

In the meantime, politicians will probably have time to regulate them.

Now it is almost populist to beat Big Tech, which has grown and enriched itself greatly during the pandemic.

The EU already has tougher legislation in place.

If the US lawsuits do not end with the division of the companies, it could be as in the Microsoft case, they are forced to open up their closed systems so more people can compete.

And it is new companies with better technology and offerings, which have barely seen the light of day when it's time for Google to stand trial, that they should fear.

Someday, the next Amazon will be born.

And sometimes Facebook might just be a retirement club.

I know, it feels weird to think that today's tech giants would not exist in 20 years.

But, do you remember Lycos, Myspace and Altavista?

If not, google them!