Although no company actually owns the internet, it is incredible to see how many businesses belong to a handful of the industry leaders out there.
Unsurprisingly, Google is way up there with the number of individual companies that it owns. In addition to its search engine capabilities, it also owns other web giants like YouTube and Android.
Microsoft, eBay, Facebook, Expedia, Amazon and Apple are other of the grand owners. These five, together with Google, continue making srtegic acquisitions, which strengthen their positions, constantly redefining the meaning of “dominant force”.
No matter what industry it is that you look at, be it retail, media, tech or travel, there will always be industry leaders in the field which will own many other smaller companies. Often this ownership goes unknown.
Did you know that TripAdvisor for example also owns other travel sites such as Viato, Holiday Lettings, Oyster, Gate Guru and many others? In turn, TripAdvisor was owned by Expedia for several years.
Microsoft owns the social media site LinkedIn, but also Skype, Internet Explorer, Lumia, Bing and more.
Although we may not know it, the internet is dominated by just a few companies, the full list of which can be found below.
