American Made
FAANG: just some of the dominant American companies
“Ok Google,” I said, “Why is nearly everything in media and tech created and controlled by American companies?”
“Well,” came the reply, “it’s a combination of a thriving venture capital scene, a large and prosperous customer-base in which to test new ideas and an unmatched ecosystem of talent — particularly in Silicon Valley. Once a start-up has proven itself and gained a significant foothold in the US, it can be scaled and rolled out to international markets.”
No, not really.
That wasn’t the reply but one day it might well be (it was actually just search results detailing big media companies). But the fact is I asked Google, an American company, a question on my Google phone powered by Google’s Android operating system. So far, a 100% Google / American service.
Being in the UK, it’s something taken for granted but, come to think of it, is also a bit peculiar — our lives are dominated by American companies. On any given day I might watch something on Netflix or YouTube, look at a product on Amazon, scroll through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, message on WhatsApp and check my emails on Outlook. All of which are, of course, American.
A particular demographic, in a particular valley, in a particular state of a particular country is behind everything I use with regards to media and tech.
And I’d do that either on a MacBook (Apple. American, as you know) or my Google phone. The one anomaly here is the Samsung TV but that’s one small South Korean outpost in my world of media and tech dominated by the good ol’ US of A.
(And just to be clear, I’m talking about the brands and where they are headquartered. That China provides the manufacturing for so much of the tech hardware is a whole other thing.)
But why American? Actually, it’s not even ‘Why American?’. More accurately, it’s ‘Why is media and tech dominated by young males mostly based in California?’
Do they somehow have a monopoly on ideas? Or, at least, ideas worth funding?
Look at this list I put together, in no particular order, of American media and tech brands, many of which are a huge part of many of our lives:
Netflix:
Founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph at ages 37 and 39, respectively
Amazon:
Founded by Jeff Bezos, aged 30
Google:
Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both aged 25
YouTube:
Founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim at ages 28, 27 and 26, respectively
Apple:
Founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne at ages 21, 26 and and 42, respectively
Facebook:
Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, aged 20
Instagram:
Founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger at ages 27 and 24, respectively
WhatsApp:
Founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum at ages 37 and 33, respectively
Microsoft:
Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen at ages 20 and 22, respectively
SnapChat:
Founded by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy at ages 21 and 23, respectively (+ Stanford classmate Reggie Brown)
Twitter:
Founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams at ages 30, 32 and 34, respectively (+ Noah Glass)
Twitch:
Founded by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear, both aged 28
LinkedIn:
Founded by Reid Hoffman, aged 35
So, all founders are male with the majority based in California and in their twenties or early thirties when they founded their respective company. It’s strange, to say the least, that a particular demographic, in a particular valley, in a particular state of a particular country is behind everything I use with regards to media and tech.
If you’ve looked at that list and thought, ‘Well, I boycotted Amazon long ago’ but you watch Netflix then I’m afraid Amazon still wins because Netflix runs on Amazon Web Services.
And, perhaps, if you’re thinking ‘I gave up on Facebook, can’t remember when I last logged in’ but you use Instagram or WhatsApp, Facebook still wins as it owns both.
And Google owns YouTube.
And Amazon owns Twitch.
And Microsoft owns LinkedIn.
And maybe one day Apple will own Disney..?
If, by some chance, you happened to be reading this in China you’d likely be saying that none of the above applies as you use Alibaba, WeChat, Weibo etc. As you’ll be aware, now smashing its way onto the social media scene with over 800 million active users is TikTok, run by the massive Chinese company, ByteDance.
In other words, the one outlier to the above list isn’t exactly run by a small, ambitious start-up in London, Tallinn or Buenos Aires.
In short, it looks like imaginary-Google was about right — the reasons America, and particularly Silicon Valley, dominate media and tech are due to the flow of talent, capital (lots of it), and technology, as well as favourable regulatory conditions and a large market with which to try out ideas. At the moment, compared to other countries, that’s an unbeatable smorgasbord of ingredients that keeps America on top of the media and tech cake.