{"id":239939,"date":"2021-04-30T23:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T20:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/opinion-big-techs-trillion-dollar-pandemic-year-may-be-just-the-beginning\/"},"modified":"2021-04-30T23:18:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T20:18:00","slug":"opinion-big-techs-trillion-dollar-pandemic-year-may-be-just-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/opinion-big-techs-trillion-dollar-pandemic-year-may-be-just-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"#\n  Opinion: Big tech\u2019s trillion-dollar pandemic year may be just the beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3dfc6ba40b2\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3dfc6ba40b2\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/opinion-big-techs-trillion-dollar-pandemic-year-may-be-just-the-beginning\/#Even_if_Amazon_Apple_Google_Facebook_and_Microsoft_fail_to_grow_at_the_same_rate_in_the_years_ahead_they_have_established_a_new_baseline_for_performance_that_is_jaw-dropping_with_no_evidence_yet_that_they_will_fall_back\" >Even if Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft fail to grow at the same rate in the years ahead, they have established a new baseline for performance that is jaw-dropping, with no evidence yet that they will fall back<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/opinion-big-techs-trillion-dollar-pandemic-year-may-be-just-the-beginning\/#Therese_Poletti_and\" >Therese Poletti and<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/opinion-big-techs-trillion-dollar-pandemic-year-may-be-just-the-beginning\/#Jeremy_C_Owens\" >Jeremy C. Owens<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#<br \/>\n  Opinion: Big tech\u2019s trillion-dollar pandemic year may be just the beginning<br \/>\n<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"article__subhead\" itemprop=\"alternativeHeadline\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Even_if_Amazon_Apple_Google_Facebook_and_Microsoft_fail_to_grow_at_the_same_rate_in_the_years_ahead_they_have_established_a_new_baseline_for_performance_that_is_jaw-dropping_with_no_evidence_yet_that_they_will_fall_back\"><\/span>\n  Even if Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft fail to grow at the same rate in the years ahead, they have established a new baseline for performance that is jaw-dropping, with no evidence yet that they will fall back<br \/>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"column column--full article__content\">\n<div class=\"article__side\">\n<div class=\"container--sticky not-active\">\n<div class=\"cx--next\">\n              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"js-article__body\" class=\"article__body article-wrap at16-col16 barrons-article-wrap\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-sbid=\"WP-MKTW-0000252067\">\n<div class=\"barrons-article-ad-wrapper\">\n<div data-track=\"barrons-article-ad-wrap\" class=\"barrons-article-ad sticky_item\">\n<div class=\"barrons-main-article-ad-target sticky_target body_ad\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>       Combining just the revenue of four companies that are in the regulatory spotlight for their dominance of the tech sector and the American economy \u2014 Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL (before traffic acquisition costs), Amazon Inc. AMZN, <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>le Inc. AAPL and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> Inc. FB \u2014 gets us to $1 trillion in the twelve full months of pandemic life in the U.S., running from the end of March 2020 to the same time in 2021.<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n<div data-layout=\"inline\n                \" data-layout-mobile=\"\" class=\"\n          media-object\n          type-InsetMediaIllustration\n            inline\n  article__inset\n          article__inset--type-InsetMediaIllustration\n            article__inset--inline\n  \"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"\n        media-object-image\n        enlarge-image\n        renoImageFormat-\n        img-inline\n        article__inset__image\n      \" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:57.73437500000001%;\" data-mobile-ratio=\"57.73437500000001%\" data-layout-ratio=\"57.73437500000001%\" data-subtype=\"\" class=\"image-container  responsive-media article__inset__image__image\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332663?width=140&amp;size=1.7320703653585927 140w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332663?width=540&amp;size=1.7320703653585927 540w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332663?width=620&amp;size=1.7320703653585927 620w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332663?width=700&amp;size=1.7320703653585927 700w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332663?width=860&amp;size=1.7320703653585927 860w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332663?width=1260&amp;size=1.7320703653585927 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 140px) 100px,\n(max-width: 540px) 500px,\n(max-width: 620px) 580px,\n(max-width: 700px) 660px,\n(max-width: 860px) 820px,\n1260px\" src=\"https:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332663?width=620&amp;size=1.7320703653585927\" data-enlarge=\"https:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332663?width=1260&amp;size=1.7320703653585927\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"wsj-article-caption article__inset__image__caption\" itemprop=\"caption\"><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>       Add Microsoft Corp.<br \/>\n        MSFT,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/207732364\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-0.13%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       \u2014 which should obviously be done, since it is on the cusp of being the second U.S. company to ever claim a market capitalization of $2 trillion, after Apple \u2014 and the total grows to about $1.2 trillion. That is equivalent to a top-20 gross domestic product of some countries, roughly the size of the Mexican or Indonesian economies before the pandemic, which had a negative effect on these countries\u2019 output, while seemingly only boosting Big Tech\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p> Out of that $1.2 trillion in revenue, the five tech companies realized nearly a quarter-trillion dollars in profit, roughly $244 billion. And that is GAAP net income, not operating profits, not adjusted earnings, and not the Ebitda figures that many companies use to make their earnings look stronger. No need for juking the stats when you\u2019re Big Tech.<\/p>\n<div data-layout=\"inline\n                \" data-layout-mobile=\"\" class=\"\n          media-object\n          type-InsetMediaIllustration\n            inline\n  article__inset\n          article__inset--type-InsetMediaIllustration\n            article__inset--inline\n  \"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"\n        media-object-image\n        enlarge-image\n        renoImageFormat-\n        img-inline\n        article__inset__image\n      \" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:56.71874999999999%;\" data-mobile-ratio=\"56.71874999999999%\" data-layout-ratio=\"56.71874999999999%\" data-subtype=\"\" class=\"image-container  responsive-media article__inset__image__image\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332664?width=140&amp;size=1.7630853994490359 140w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332664?width=540&amp;size=1.7630853994490359 540w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332664?width=620&amp;size=1.7630853994490359 620w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332664?width=700&amp;size=1.7630853994490359 700w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332664?width=860&amp;size=1.7630853994490359 860w,\nhttps:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332664?width=1260&amp;size=1.7630853994490359 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 140px) 100px,\n(max-width: 540px) 500px,\n(max-width: 620px) 580px,\n(max-width: 700px) 660px,\n(max-width: 860px) 820px,\n1260px\" src=\"https:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332664?width=620&amp;size=1.7630853994490359\" data-enlarge=\"https:\/\/images.mktw.net\/im-332664?width=1260&amp;size=1.7630853994490359\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"wsj-article-caption article__inset__image__caption\" itemprop=\"caption\"><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>       For all five, the first full 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic would have been their most successful years of all time, if it was actually a fiscal or calendar year. And remember, we are not talking about young companies that haven\u2019t been public long. Apple and Microsoft, which went public in 1976 and 1986, respectively, have been  titans since well into the previous millennium, and have produced huge annual profit and sales totals in the past,  while Google and Amazon were products of the dot-com boom that ended more than two decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s even more astounding to realize that all of these companies, with the exception of software behemoth Microsoft, are under some sort of federal investigation for anti-competitive practices and behavior, but maybe that is precisely the point of the investigations. Even amid rounds and rounds of time-consuming Congressional hearings and millions of dollars being spent in the first round of legal fees, these companies continue to power on, raking in money hand over fist.  In Microsoft\u2019s case, it\u2019s been there, done that, at least for now.  <\/p>\n<p>In all aspects, the growing financial strength and powerful effects on the economy from Big Tech cannot be ignored. Amazon grew its workforce by more than 50% in the past 12 months, and is now the second largest American employer behind Walmart Inc.<br \/>\n        WMT,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/207374728\/composite\" class=\"positive\">+0.20%<\/bg-quote><span>,<\/span><br \/>\n       the only other U.S. company besides Apple and Amazon that is putting up regular $100 million sales quarters. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/s2.q4cdn.com\/299287126\/files\/doc_financials\/2021\/ar\/Amazon-2020-Shareholder-Letter-and-1997-Shareholder-Letter.pdf\" class=\"icon none\">In 2020, Amazon hired over 500,000 employees,<\/a> as it started to prepare for more deliveries, and more services in a increasingly digital world with everyone in lockdown in the first months of the pandemic. The number of employees Amazon hired in the past 12 months eclipses the entire combined workforces of Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For more: Tech\u2019s COVID-19 boom won\u2019t last forever, but it\u2019s not going to end just yet<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Investors have been richly rewarded for the companies\u2019 performance. All five have seen their stocks hit record highs in 2021, and as of Friday, their combined market capitalization was closing in on $8.5 trillion.  While they are collectively only 1% of the companies in the S&amp;P 500<br \/>\n        SPX,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/210599714\/realtime\" class=\"negative\">-0.72%<\/bg-quote><span>,<\/span><br \/>\n       their market capitalization accounts for nearly a quarter of the total for the entire index, 23.7%.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest question for investors is if this is a peak or a new baseline. Analyst seem to consider it the latter. While acknowledging it will be hard to grow at the same rate from the current performance, analysts largely expect this type of financial gain to be the new normal for Big Tech. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated question about earnings peaking,\u201d said Brendan Connaughton,  founder and managing partner of Catalyst Private Wealth. \u201cFrom here, for the next three quarters it will be tough comps\u2026.The absolute numbers will continue to be impressive but the growth rates will be less impressive. They are going to be walking around in the C-suite saying, \u2018I hope the investors look at the raw numbers not relative to last year.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"cx-membership-tile\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>For more: See our Business in the Age of COVID-19 <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Will that be enough to keep pushing shares higher, though? Apple, after revealing an astonishing quarter in which the company surpassed Wall Street\u2019s revenue expectations by $12.5 billion, saw shares end flat on the day after its report. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt (really) doesn\u2019t get better than this,\u201d Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi headlined his note on Apple\u2019s results, and investors seemed to agree.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen and to what degree the strength in spending from the pandemic will<br \/>unwind is clearly the key question,\u201d Sacconaghi wrote, a question that could be asked of every company in Big Tech. \u201cWe believe it may be difficult for Apple to grow in FY [fiscal year] 22, and currently model revenues fractionally down in FY 22\u2026 but it could be worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Analysts did not expect much of the growth shown in the past week of first-quarter earnings either, however, with all five companies largely blowing away both their internal and analysts\u2019 forecasts for profit and revenue. And even if Big Tech can\u2019t possibly grow at the same rate from the current performance \u2014 they can\u2019t, can they? Who even knows by now \u2014 just putting up numbers like this commands the huge valuations they are receiving from Wall Street right now.<\/p>\n<p>The monster earnings confirm how these companies are crushing their competition and dominating the U.S. economy.  It\u2019s a huge gravy train for investors in Big Tech, but puts a big target on their back for regulators.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"byline article__byline\">\n<p>      <span>By<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author  hasMenu\" data-scrim='{\"type\":\"author\",\"header\":\"Therese Poletti\",\"subhead\":\"The Wall Street Journal\",\"list\":[]}' itemscope itemprop=\"author\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<h4 itemprop=\"name\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Therese_Poletti_and\"><\/span>Therese Poletti and<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"author  hasMenu\" data-scrim='{\"type\":\"author\",\"header\":\"\",\"subhead\":\"The Wall Street Journal\",\"list\":[]}' itemscope itemprop=\"author\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<h4 itemprop=\"name\"><\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"author  hasMenu\" data-scrim='{\"type\":\"author\",\"header\":\"Jeremy C. Owens\",\"subhead\":\"The Wall Street Journal\",\"list\":[]}' itemscope itemprop=\"author\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<h4 itemprop=\"name\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jeremy_C_Owens\"><\/span>Jeremy C. Owens<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/news\/story.asp?guid=%7B21005575-02D4-D4B5-4572-D3D8A3549E70%7D&#038;siteid=rss&#038;rss=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;# Opinion: Big tech\u2019s trillion-dollar pandemic year may be just the beginning &#8221; Even if Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft fail to grow at the same rate in the years ahead, they have established a new baseline for performance that is jaw-dropping, with no evidence yet that they will fall back Combining just the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}