Internet Giants by the Second

October 26, 2018 Posted by: Loanable Category: Blog

When you think about it in the grand scheme of things, the Internet has not been around very long at all. And it has only been in the past 25 years or so it has become the massive influence, seller, gateway, and go to place in the world!

The development of computers in the 1950’s, to networks in the late 1960’s to being able to send packets of information in the 1970’s, to emails in the 80’s to what we have now.

It has been an amazing and quick journey.

It is easier to think of and say what we don’t do on the Internet as opposed to what all we can do.

Communications have changed, at first it was sending an email, and that was novel for the time. Now even emails have become yesterday’s news, as the various message services allow us to instantly contact someone in a variety of ways.

VOIP, or Voice Over IP, is used by almost all business now to link up offices around the world. Many households use this as well, and they may not even be aware they are using it. Their landline provider may use the technology, and all we think is we are picking up the phone to place a call.

Online purchases are an easy way to get whatever you want or need, delivered right to your door. This can be everything from food, to appliances, to clothing, furniture, you name it, you can buy it online; in addition to being able to research the item prior to making the purchase.

The Internet has changed our lives.

And our social lives have changed as well due to the Internet.

Between Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, and online dating, we are more social than ever, all without leaving home.

Who would have thought of all this change 25 years ago? A few people did think of this change, and saw the future, and created companies to not just jump into the Internet pool, but propel the Internet into what it is today, these are the Giants of the Internet.

And giants they are!

They have not only shaped many of our lives, but they are shaping our wallets and purses, along with their bottom lines.

Profits!

These are not companies that just earn millions, they earn billions, and in some instances, they are at the trillion mark. That’s a 1, with 12 zeros after it, 1,000,000,000,000!

That’s some serious dosh!

Looking at these Giants of the Internet, let’s see what they are earning, not by the minute, but by the second in real time, and also a few interesting facts along the way.

Ready to climb the beanstalk, here we go…

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Apple

Just say the word Apple to anyone, and the odds are in favour of them knowing exactly of whom you are speaking.

Even those in far off remote places on the globe, know of this Internet Giant.

Many of us, well billions of us, probably have on our persons one of the billions of iPhone, or iPods that have been sold over the years.

However, Apple began from humble beginnings.

Founded by the now household names of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, they began working out of a garage in 1976, and then in 1977 incorporated.

Not much was happening Internet wise in the late 70’s, but that didn’t stop Jobs and Wozniak from seeing a need, and creating a product to fill that need in the form of the personal computer.

Over the ensuing 30 years, Apple made Macs a household name in personal computers, using their own operating systems, browsers, and proprietary hardware.

Next came iPods, music and video players, iPhones, iPads, iTunes, and they came in the millions!

Millions were sold, billions of $$ were made, and on August 2, 2018, Apple was valued at over $1,000,000,000,000. $1 trillion!

Not too shabby for 2 guys starting out in a garage.

Not only is Apple a giant in the Internet industry, they also have become part of our social fibre and culture. Just ask one of the thousands of people queueing up for the next release of the iPhone.

So how do we break down this giant of the Internet:

By the Second: On average, Apple is earning $1.45K a second. This changes all the time, but still $1,450 a second.

iPhones Sold Since Launch: Apple has sold 1.3 billion iPhones since the mobile phone was first launched in 2007. Now in its 11th year and 10th (XS) version, it still continues to be a best seller.

Dollars in Cash Reserves: Apple has $285 billion in cash reserves. That is more than most companies are worth.

Siri Requests Completed Monthly: Siri, which is Apple’s digital assistant completes 10 billion requests each month.

Podcasts Streams/Downloads: The number of podcasts Apple sees is 50 billion.

It is easy to see why Apple is one of the Giants of the Internet.

Amazon

Starting out in 1995 in Seattle, Washington, USA, by Jeff Bezos, once again in a garage, and starting out as an online book retailer. Amazon on September 4, 2018, became the second company to be worth $1,000,000,000,000!

Since starting out as a book retailed, Amazon has gone onto become one of if not the largest online retailer.

If Amazon doesn’t sell it, you don’t need it.

Amazon has branched out into things like audio books, and Kindle ebook readers, which are hugely popular. You simply download your book to the Kindle and read away.

They also have devised their own tablet computers the Fire and recently launched a digital personal assistant you keep around the house Alexa.

Alexa is a digital assistant that is about to become a game changer in sales and the retail world.

Not only can you use it to look up anything online, with the right modules it can turn lights on and off, microwave food, create shopping lists, and now recently, do a mortgage loan search for you finding you the best mortgage deal.

HMRC has even set-up pages Alexa can access to aid you in some of your tax questions.

Again, she is a game changer.

So much does this trillion dollar company make?

By The Second: $616 a second, which changes each second.

Net Sales 2017: Amazon had net sales of 178 billion last year!

Users Last Year: Last year they had 300 million active users.

Spent on Shipping 2017: There was $21 billion spent on shipping alone for all the items Amazon sells.

Robots Employed: The company employs 45,0000 robots to do much of the automated work.

Amazon recently gave its employees a wage increase to $15 an hour as a minimum rate.

Chances are you have ordered something from Amazon at some point in your life, if you have not, you will be.

Microsoft

Another Cinderella story that had humble beginnings.

Reaching back to 1972, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, founded a company called Traf-O-Data, which tracked automobile traffic using a very basic computer.

Fast forward to 1977 and Microsoft began, and in 1979, they moved to Bellevue, Washington.

The history of Microsoft is as well known as Apple’s history.

New innovations such as Windows operating system, that replaced MS-DOS (desk operating system) using small tiles to click on to open programmes, became a standard in the computer industry.

We now use Windows 10, and with a few Window hiccups along the way, Windows 10 is an excellent, and stable operating system sold on the majority of computers bought.

The name Bill Gates is synonymous with being rich, very rich.

Mr. Gates is consistently one of the richest men in the world, as well as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Gate’s wealth while it changes, is estimated to be around $97.6 billion as of this writing.

Shares of Microsoft as this writing were selling for $112 a share, with the entire company be valued at around or near $750 billion!

So breaking this down:

By The Second: $531 for each second, on average. So over £1.1K in 2 seconds.

Employees: The company has 99,000 employees around the world.

Number of People Using OneDrive: OneDrive Microsoft’s file hosting service has 115m people using it.

Market Value in 2017: The company’s market value was $600 billion last year.

Microsoft Launcher Downloads: Microsoft’s launcher, which allows you to launch applications on Android devices has been downloaded 10 million times.

Easy to see why the name Bill Gates = rich.

Google

20 years ago if you had asked someone do they Google, they may have cocked their head sideways like a dog, and looked at you oddly. Today, Google is the number 1 search engine and more.

Google has changed the game of how we find stuff on the Internet.

Google truly is not only a Giant of the Internet, but they help drive the Internet.

If you are searching for something online and use Google, everyone is vying for your click to their web site, and Google knows this.

Using their proprietary algorithms, they will bring up what you are searching for. Google has shaped how we search on the Internet.

No longer do we need to just type in a word, we can type in a question or sentence, and Google goes to work to find what we are searching for.

And using their own AI/artificial intelligence, as a search engine it learns, it learns what we are looking for and finds it for us.

Google has sparked other companies to spring-up, companies teaching about and promising SEO, search engine optimisation. They will help your web site rank higher than others in Google searches.

Back in 1998, when Google started, who would have thought all this to be true.

Even Amazon’s Jeff Bezo invested in Google when they started.

In 2004, the company went public and had an IPO, Initial Public Offering of shares, which raised, $1.67 billion.

The company now is valued at over $750 billion, and is expected to the third company to reach the £1,000,000,000,000 mark!

However, Google is more than a search engine, so much more.

There are Google Maps, Google+ a social media platform, Youtube, Google Chrome web browser, they lead the development of the Android mobile operating system, Chrome computer operating system, and also recently are working on autonomous cars, driverless cars.

So what is all that worth in a second?

By The Second: $602 profit by the second

Google Searches Per Day: 3.5 billion searches on Google a day!

Google Display Network Sites: 2 million network sites.

Apps Serving Google Ads: 650K applications serving Google ads. Which is one way we find many of the web sites we are searching for.

Google Adsense Publishers: 2m Adsense publishers. These publishers allow wed sites to serve ads, via text, or video.

So the next time someone says “Google it”, you’ll have a bit more understanding of what is happening, and the money Google is earning.

Facebook

The largest IPO, Initial Public Offering of shares in history, May 18, 2012, $104 billion was raised.

That says it all!

Beginning with an idea Mark Zuckerberg had, initially called Facemash, was started by the university student back in 2003, and soon by 2004, became Facebook.

What began as a college boys way of asking people who looked “hotter”, became the largest social media group on the planet, with billions of users; some say addicts, as Facebook is addictive.

A good way to stay in contact with friends and family, Facebook has taken on a life of its own.

Gathering data on its users, all of which is valuable, some third party apps decided to do the same, and this caused a bit of a scandal.

Doing damage control, Facebook made some changes to insure the privacy of its users.

Some may ask, how does Facebook make any money?

Through ads, targeted and otherwise, and all the data the social giant gathers has a huge value.

So what is that value in a second?

By the Second: $323 in one second, and $626 by two seconds.

Businesses That Use Facebook: Everybody has a Facebook page, even companies and business, 50 million to be exact.

New Users By the Minute: Facebook gets 400 new users each minute. No wonder they have billions of members.

Active Monthly Messenger Users: 1.2 billion of messenger users each month.

Status Updates Per Day: 35 million users update their status each day. That’s a lot of single, in a relationship, married, etc, status changes.

Social media is a giant, and Facebook is the giant amongst the Giants of the Internet.

Netflix

Take your mind back to a time when if you wanted to watch a film, you went to the cinema. (we may be going back further than many can remember). But it was true. Films were only in cinemas.

Then came the televison, TV, we could watch shows at home, and eventually, films, old ones, crept their way onto the TV.

Then in the 80’s home VCR players, video cassettes could be rented and played at home.

Then as the Internet grew, so did another giant of the Internet, streaming services to stream TV shows and films.

In 1997 Netflix was founded by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings.

In 1998, Netflix launched the first online DVD rental store. You ordered a DVD, it was posted to you, after watching it, you posted the DVD back.

Simple, however, as the Internet got larger and stronger, and bandwidths grew, streaming, watching films and shows online became easier, and quicker. No waiting and watching out for the post man.

And with Netflix’s own shows and films, you are getting brand new, first rate shows and films, only available on Netflix.

Today, Netflix is another one of those giants of the Internet, that has found its way into our lives and culture. And spawned other services as well.

So how well is Netflix doing?

Shares in the company have doubled since 2016 and as of this writing are valued at $343.

The company’s value changes due to their business model, which currently sees them spending more than they are earning. They feel by spending more on some new shows, such as “The Crown”, they will attract new viewers.

Is this working, by the second?

By the Second: $18 for one second, $36 for two seconds, $54 for three seconds. Not in your Apple or Amazon leagues, but not too bad.

Hours per Day Spent on Netflix: So how many hours a day do we all spend “binge watching” shows, 100 million hours. And there are only 24 hours in a day.

Money from DVD Rentals in 2017: £450 million on DVD rentals in 2017.

Subscribers in 2018: Netflix has 123 million subscribers so far this year.

Paid to Stream Disney Content: Many of us Netflix users have children, or we like Beauty and the Beast, as 300 million of us paid to stream Disney content.

A giant of the Internet that keeps us glued to our computers, tablets, mobile phones and smart TVs’.

Uber

What is the largest taxi service in the world, and yet owns no taxis?

Uber.

Started in 2009 by Garett Camp, who wanted to find a less expensive way of transportation after spending $800 on a “private driver”.

Uber is a unique way to hail a taxi, via their application, be quoted the fare, and book the taxi, all on the application. Payment and tips are are paid out of your bank account, which is accessible and apart of the application.

Uber taxis are all around the world, and have not been without their controversy, usually around licensing issues in different countries and cities.

Those that use Uber love the service, so much so that the company has quickly become worth over $70 billion.

Uber is looking to expand into Uber Eats a food delivery service, and also following Google with self-driving cars.

By the Second: $206 per second of profit.

Employees: 19,000 employees worldwide.

Users in 2018: 75 million users so far this year. That’s a lot of taxi rides.

Uber Drivers: The company has 3 million drivers.

Earned in Tips 2017: These 3 million drivers, earned $600 million in tips last year. People must like the service.

ebay

Where else can you bring buyers looking for stuff, with sellers looking to sell stuff online, eBay!

Auctions have always been a popular way for people to buy items, and try to buy them cheaply, and find that rare item they want.

Many people equate auctions with bargains.

And with so many people shopping online, why not bring them together under one roof, so to speak, the roof of the Internet.

Also, eBay has allowed sellers to build an empire online, selling to anyone around the world, and for buyers to find sellers from around the world, all on the Internet.

Have some junk around the house you want to sell, old toys, records, CD’s, just stuff, put it on eBay and sell it. Anyone can be a seller.

A very innovative way to bring two groups together.

eBay stared in 1995, as a part of the “dot-com bubble”, but did not disappear as many companies and web sites did at that time.

Initially, PayPal was used for payments, and was owned by eBay, but left in 2015.

In addition to eBay, at some point the company had shares and holdings in Craigslist, Skype, and Stub|Hub, a ticker reselling service.

eBay is similar to Amazon, if you cannot find it there, you have to question yourself if you need it.

By the Second: $231 per second eBay generate in profit.

Buyers Using eBay: 175 million people use eBay daily.

Sellers Using eBay: 25 million people us eBay to sell their wares.

eBay Classified Users: 250 million people use eBay’s classifieds to buy and sell items.

Global eBay Application Downloads: There have been 370 million eBay apps downloaded globally.

Twitter

Do you tweet?

How do you let people know your feelings, where you are at, what you are doing, all within 280 characters?

That can be a bit of challenge.

Twitter, by some of the other Internet Giants timelines, is not that old, started in 2006, born out of a “daylong brainstorming session” by a podcasting company Odeo.

That is some brainstorming session. Initially tweets were capped at 140 characters. You really need to be clear and concise with that limited character usage.

But the company took off, initially they thought of it as “micro-blogging”, get things off your chest, now and quickly.

President Trump took it to heart, as he regularly tweets, and his tweets can start up controversy.

The company has experienced tremendous and rapid growth, in part due to the fact people read other people’s tweets, and this causes an escalation of matters. All in good fun.

So what does all that tweeting and good fun equate to in a second?

By the Second: Twitter’s profits are on average $3 per second. A profit is a profit.

Active Twitter Users: Twitter has 335 million active users, all tweeting away.

Tweets Sent Daily: Those 335 million users, tweet 500 million tweets a day.

Active Daily Users: There are 100 million active users that use the service every day. I am guessing President Trump may be one of those, as he seems to have a lot to say.

Market Value in 2018: Twitter is currently worth $16 billion. Let’s tweet about that.

So now that you know Twitter is amongst the Internet Giants, send a Tweet about it.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a very different and oddly unique Giant of the Internet, as it is used to send snaps, photos, but only to someone to view, for a short period of time.

The “multimedia messaging app” was developed by former students of Stanford University, and was to present user’s “Stories” of 24 hours of chronological content, along with “Discover”.

Whatever that was to mean.

The premise or how it works is, you send a photo to another user, and they can view it, but only for a specific period of time. Usually 10 seconds after opening.

So you had better be quick in looking once opened.

The company has grown, but not as well as other Internet leaders.

Users can also send messages related to the photo or the story.

The company is not making money as fast as it is spending it. The costs of revenue are high, almost 1.5 times what the company is earning. This is due to the fact the cloud-computing power the company needs to service the snaps, is expensive.

The company does not expect the numbers to change anytime soon, so by the second.

By the Second: Snapchat losses $10 per second. In 30 seconds, they have lost $300.

Monthly Active Users: Even losing money, they have 300 million active users.

Daily Active Users: 188 million of these 300 million users, are daily active users, using the service each day.

Snaps Created Daily: 3 billion snaps are created each day, that’s a lot of snaps, and that’s 1,000 snaps per active user, or more for each daily user.

Daily Video Views: The company has 10 billion daily video views. So not just snaps, but also videos.

There you have it, by the second profits and more, of the Internet Giants.

Companies which have grasped not just the power of the Internet, but also combined, our social aspects (Facebook), our love of shopping and retail therapy (Amazon and Apple), searching for those “White Whales” (eBay), and tidbits of useless information to help us win a pub quiz (Google), and also share photos and our thoughts (Twitter and Snapchat).