According to a 2017 Statista survey, the four internet behemoths that make up GAFA are all now household names and an integral part of modern society with an average recognition rate of over 90% of respondents. The top brand was Google scoring 96% closely followed by Amazon at 94%. So, let’s discuss how they are different.

Google

As everyone knows, Google is a leader among web search engines and people are “googling” every day when they are looking for something to buy. Google is also big in cloud computing and has developed a variety of products relating to planning, management, storage, emails (Gmail), translations, web referencing, photo sharing, videos (YouTube), and geolocation (Google Maps). Google also runs the Android operating system and the Chrome web browser. The company has recently launched Google Home, an online assistant to provide the user with the latest information about the weather, sports, finance, and more. Google’s dominance means that approximately 69% of people use at least one Google service or product every day.

Apple

Apple is the top seller of hardware products – the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod, the Mac computer, and the Apple Watch. Apple also runs the iOs operating system, the iCloud, the Mac App Store, and Apple Music. It has physical retail outlets – Apple Stores – over 500 stores spread across nineteen countries. It might seem counterintuitive to go to a physical store to buy a product that you will use for online shopping, but people camp out overnight to get the latest iPhone. Steve Jobs made the Apple brand one of the most important international entities in the world. In spite of fierce competition in the field of technology development, Apple has been able to hold its own.

Facebook

Facebook was the first universal social network and has since become the main communication medium at both the personal and professional level. Facebook enables businesses to interact with their customers and potential customers online through their published content. Many potential shoppers log on with their mobile phone and stay on Facebook throughout the day to talk to their friends, check the news, share opinions, send messages, and follow their favorite publishers. Facebook now has a customized platform called Facebook Watch where users can watch videos. Surveys found that 87% of people have a Facebook account and 72% of those use Facebook daily.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/703901/facebook-services-and-products-usage-frequency-in-us/

Amazon

The story of Amazon is a particularly amazing one. It took the long journey from being on online bookstore to becoming an ecommerce giant with stunning success. In fact, one survey suggests that 44% of consumers are beginning their searches directly on Amazon rather than using any other search engine. Amazon is an example of the best in operational efficiency which enables it to set and meet skyrocketing customer expectations with respect to customer service. It’s possible that one day drones will accomplish even faster Amazon deliveries. Amazon also offers AWS (Amazon Web Services) which offers on-demand secure cloud computing platforms and entertainment services through Amazon Prime.

The Future of GAFA

The GAFA giants will likely expand their businesses by continuing to purchase other companies that complement their existing activities, e.g., Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and Facebook’s purchase of Instagram. They will also continue to buy competitive startups that pose alternatives to business as usual for the biggest players in the internet game. It seems that concerns that have arisen around privacy issues and societal influences are not enough for consumers to abstain on mass from the GAFA companies. Therefore, it is likely that these behemoths are here to stay and will grow even bigger.

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What is GAFA?

In a world with a multiplicity of acronyms, GAFA refers to the four colossi of the internet:

Google  •  Apple  •  Facebook  •  Amazon

In today’s online daily life, you could ask Google how to bake a pound cake, use your Apple smartphone to check Facebook to find what your high school crush has made of their life, and, instead of going to the mall you can log on to Amazon and the mall will come to you. Indeed, we may find ourselves questioning how we used to do anything without GAFA.

GAFA and Online Shopping

• Google

More and more people are shopping online. It doesn’t matter which device we are using – mobile phone, tablet, laptop, desktop – or where our location is, if we are researching a product or service we are interested in, Google will track it down for us. As far as browsing the web is concerned, Google is king. In fact, Google has become such a big part of everyday online life that it has been turned into a verb – everyone “googles.” If you are shopping for a product or service online you invariably “google it.”

• Apple

You wouldn’t be able to “google” to find whatever you want to shop for online without a piece of hardware to enable you to do so. The Apple iPhone is not just a phone – it could be argued that it’s also by far the most successful online shopping product ever to have appeared on the market. Since its game-changing launch in 2007, the iPhone has garnered an extremely loyal user base that eagerly awaits the latest reincarnation (there have been thirteen so far). As of August 2017, more than one billion iPhones have been sold worldwide.

• Facebook

Data analysis from Facebook reveals that people are doing most of their online shopping via their mobile phones (think the Apple iPhone for example). Facebook, as the premier social media platform, is becoming more and more important to online retailers and shoppers by enabling retailers to display their stuff on the Facebook platform and find the right people to buy it. Facebook also offers tools for businesses to reach their desired global audiences such as its IQ Cross-Border Insights Finder.

• Amazon

The final “A” in GAFA is Amazon, without doubt the leader when it comes to buying anything online, including software and video games. When you “google” on your Apple device to search for something to buy online, count how many links to that item or similar items are Amazon links. It sometimes seems that the only place you can buy anything is on Amazon. And, shoppers have noticed this and many of them are going straight to Amazon to search. By subscribing to Amazon Prime, frequent shoppers can take advantage of free postage.

The GAFA Effect

The mighty four GAFA companies have set the standard for leadership when it comes to building loyalty and commitment in customer relationships. Google can predict customer buying preferences through sophisticated algorithms; Apple doesn’t just sell phones, it also offers a style and a feeling; Facebook can grab and hold a user’s attention and time to eat up to fifty minutes of their total time online; And, many shoppers go straight to Amazon to start their searches. GAFA has transformed the idea of selling from a simple financial transaction into a long-term beneficial relationship both for GAFA and for consumers.

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