I’d suggest, however, that the key to their success can be located in their singular competitive advantage: customer data. Each of “The Four” has built unparalleled infrastructure dedicated to knowing exactly who you are and what you like. Google and Facebook: The Advertising DuopolyFacebook and Google are synonymous with Silicon Valley success, but their winning streak reads differently to digital marketers and publishers than to consumers or capital markets. Before the advent of these two companies, marketing to large audiences was a clunky, inexact science. Google and Facebook transformed the ad industry forever by introducing mass-market scale into the previously bespoke art of known user marketing.

Source: Forbes November 29, 2017 20:37 UTC