Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook, or the Gang of Four, as some call them, have come to define the glittering promise of technology. In a very short space of business time these four humble startups became the world’s most valuable and profitable companies by expertly mining a digital, online world and disrupting the way commerce had been done for decades.

Together they’ve driven technology and web connectivity into every corner of our lives through constant reinvention, ubiquitous marketing, and a voracious appetite to buy up other companies and startups on the cutting edge of the next big thing. And by making themselves indispensable to most of us in the process.

All that wealth and the unprecedented control of billions of people’s personal data have made them some of the most powerful companies in history, but... Read More