The CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook bent over backward on Wednesday to downplay their market leadership positions in over five and a half…
The CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook bent over backward on Wednesday to downplay their market leadership positions in over five and a half hours of testimony before Congress. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that he’s playing catch-up in several categories, from messaging to video. Apple CEO Tim Cook described the «street fight» competitive environment of the smartphone market. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos said his company is still a small player in overall retail, while Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said Google continues to face competitive threats.
If you just listened to these four men, you’d almost feel sorry for them.
But then they all proceeded the very next day to post profits that Scrooge McDuck would be jealous of.
Amazon and Facebook both saw their profits double — with Amazon’s results coming after spending $4 billion on COVID-19-related safety measures for its employees, while Apple saw a slight increase in iPhone sales despite many of its stores being closed and much of the world locked down. Google was the only company to post a revenue and sales decline (but don’t feel too bad, since the results were better than Wall Street expected).
The stark contrast between the rhetoric heard before the House Judiciary’s Antitrust Subcommittee and today’s big earnings and revenue gains undermines any effort by the executives to garner sympathy as lawmakers look for ways to limit the immense power these companies wield. The timing, with earnings coming out less than 24 hours after the hearing ended, makes for a more dramatic comparison because it’s so fresh in our minds.
That these companies continue to post billions of dollars in profit amid a pandemic and recession that’s eliminated tens of millions of jobs in the US alone underscores how much more dependent we are on Big Tech during this crisis, whether it’s to stay in touch with our friends and family through Facebook, buy diapers and food through Amazon, and watch entertainment and use online services from Google and on devices from Apple.
