As COVID-19 decimates the global economy, tech giants have a unique opportunity to expand their power, crush rivals, and improve their political fortunes
and getting more powerful — even as the global economy tanks. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Lots of good reporting from @lizzadwoskin @robmaxim @profgalloway James Pethokoukis / @jimpethokoukis : Must have increased their lobbying and kill zoning over the past two months! https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Heather Long / @byheatherlong : Tech giants are profiting — and getting even more powerful — even as the global economy tanks Amazon Facebook Google Apple Microsoft https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... via @lizzadwoskin Reed Albergotti / @reedalbergotti : From this @lizzadwoskin article on Big Tech during the covid crisis: “Like the killing off of the dinosaurs, this reorders who gets to survive in the new era. It is the shock that accelerates the future that Silicon Valley has been building.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @dhh : Big tech is using the crisis to stall antitrust inquiries and privacy compliance, while turbocharging Good Guys PR, as their power expands while the competition crumbles. We desperately need to break these companies up. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
The Washington Post's April 2020 piece lands mid-crisis: while the global economy contracts, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft are gaining revenue, market share, and political leverage simultaneously. The reporting builds on a pattern already visible in earnings statements from Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft showing they were as strong as ever even before the pandemic earnings statements showing the five firms as strong as ever.
What changed in 2020 was the speed of consolidation: smaller rivals were struggling for survival at exactly the moment the giants could acquire, hire, and lobby. Tech's lobbying push for long-held goals amid the frantic COVID-19 environment lobbying quietly advancing long-held goals during the outbreak ran in parallel, and by May the pandemic's visibility of Big Tech's economic power had made the firms a bigger target for antitrust hawks in Washington pandemic making Big Tech's power more visible to antitrust hawks — setting up the counter-reaction that followed.
First-order effects
- Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft convert the downturn into share gains immediately — customers, ad budgets, and displaced workers flow toward the firms best capitalized to absorb the shock.
- The same firms use the crisis window to advance political goals, with lobbying activity increasing over the first two months of the outbreak per the Post's sourcing.
Second-order effects
- Weakened smaller rivals face a squeeze: the giants' resources let them out-innovate and further solidify dominance precisely when competitors cannot raise capital or retain talent.
- The concentration itself becomes a political liability — Facebook, Google, and Amazon's heightened economic visibility draws antitrust scrutiny in Washington, forcing the firms to spend influence they just gained on defense.
Third-order effects
- If crisis-driven consolidation holds, the industry structure tilts toward a handful of platform gatekeepers whose scale becomes self-reinforcing across downturns.
- The backlash arc points toward governments moving to limit tech power with an urgency and breadth no single industry had experienced before — the regulatory reckoning that followed within a year.
The trend: Economic shocks are accelerating Big Tech concentration faster than regulators can respond, but each consolidation wave shortens the fuse on the political backlash against it.