The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google

by Scott Galloway

Forty-five percent of Americans, and much of the world, turns to Facebook for its news.44 Yet Facebook doesn’t want to be seen as a media company. Neither does Google. The traditional thinking in the market is that they resist this label because of their stock valuations. Why? Because media companies only get a mildly insane valuation, and the Four are addicted to iconospheric valuations—hundreds of billions. That way everyone in their small and select work forces can be not just comfortable, or prosperous, but filthy rich. And that’s a retention strategy that is always en vogue. Another reason they don’t want to be positioned as media companies is more perverse. Respectable companies in the news business recognize their responsibility to the public and try to come to grips with their role in shaping the worldview of their customers. You know: editorial objectivity, fact-checking, journalistic ethics, civil discourse—all that kind of stuff. That’s a lot of work, and it dents profits.

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