How The Big 5 Tech Companies Rake in Billions

The Big 5 tech giants collectively generate nearly $900 billion in revenue. How do they rake in nearly as much money as the GDP of entire countries like Indonesia and the Netherlands — and more than the total GDP of Saudi Arabia and Turkey?

This graphic illustrates how these tech titans bring in astronomical revenues with their offerings of products and services.

Tech Giants

Amazon

The total revenue of Amazon is $281 billion. The company has a net income of $11.6 billion.

Revenue Breakdown:

  • Physical and digital products sold online: 50.4%
  • Third-party seller services: 19.2%
  • Amazon web services: 12.5%
  • Physical stores: 6.1%
  • Subscription services & Amazon Prime: 6.9%
  • Other (mostly ads): 5.0%

Amazon earns most of its revenue (69%) in the U.S. It continues to expand its e-commerce and cloud computing divisions. Amazon currently holds a 33% share of the global cloud computing market and 39% of the e-commerce sales in the U.S.

Apple

Apple has a total revenue of $260 billion, with a net income of $55.2 billion.

Revenue Breakdown:

  • iPhone: 54.7%
  • Services (Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple TV): 17.8%
  • Mac: 9.9%
  • iPad: 8.2%
  • Other products: 9.4%

iPhone is still the king for Apple, earning the company more than half its revenue and 61% in the first quarter of 2020. AirPods have also been a cash cow for the company, generating an estimated $6 to $12 billion in revenue in 2019.

Could we imagine a world without the iPhone? Apple would certainly be a much less valuable company without it. If there were no such thing as the iPhone, Apple literally wouldn’t be half the company it is today.

North and South America make up 45% of Apple’s revenue, with China brining in 27% and Europe 22%. 

Alphabet

Alphabet, who many know as Google and YouTube, brings in $162 billion in revenue and has a net income of $34.3 billion.

Revenue Breakdown:

  • Advertising on Google Properties: 70%
  • Advertising (Google Network Members/Google Ads): 13.3%
  • Google Cloud: 5.5%
  • Google Other (Google home and music, etc.): 10.5%
  • Other Bets: 0.4%

Google puts money into long-shot ideas, hoping to find the next big thing. The company has invested in internet balloons, self-driving cars, smart home products and drone deliveries. These endeavors have so far only produced $0.6 billion per year.

Alphabet’s revenue comes from the U.S. (46%), Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (31%), Asia Pacific (17%), and “other Americas” (6%).

Microsoft

Microsoft has a total revenue of $126 billion and a net income of $39.2 billion.

Revenue Breakdown:

  • Microsoft Azure (Server products and cloud services): 25.9%
  • Office (Products and cloud services): 25.2%
  • Windows: 16.2%
  • Gaming: 9.1%
  • Bing (Search ads): 6.1%
  • Enterprise Services: 4.8%
  • Devices (Microsoft Surface): 4.8%
  • LinkedIn: 5.4%
  • Other: 2.4%

Microsoft’s bread and butter is in the U.S., which makes up for 51% of its revenue. No other country accounts for more than 10% of the company’s revenue.

Facebook

Facebook’s total revenue is $71 billion and the company has a net income of $18.5 billion.

Revenue Breakdown:

  • Facebook Ads: 98.5%
  • Payments and other fees: 1.5%

45% of Facebook’s revenue comes from users in the U.S., 24% from Europe, 22% from the Asia Pacific, and 9% from the rest of the world.

Facebook has been making more and more per user for years, primarily from users in the U.S. and Canada. Users in North America are worth $41.41 in the U.S. and Canada according to 2019 Q4 reports, while users in the rest of the world are worth $8.52 to the company.