Summary of a book titled "The Four" written by Scott Galloway. 

This book is about the DNA of giants and how awe inspiring they are with respect to others. They certainly give the rest of the businesses a whole new meaning given their size. These majestic companies are: 

1) Apple: Cash on hand is nearly the GDP of Denmark. The author uses the metaphor of sex. 

2) Amazon: Market capitalization is about 748 B greater than the sum of all others. The author uses the metaphor of consumption for Amazon 

3) Facebook: Market capitalization per employee is about 21 million. The author uses this company as a symbol of Love since it has perfected the art of interactions that make people happy and “Happiness is love” 

4) Google: ages in reverse as it accrues data harnessing the power of 2 billion people in terms of what they want and what they choose. The author uses the metaphor of God 

With the use of metaphors, the author makes reference to the four horsemen. These four drive prices down, not up and definitely take the profit from others. 

The only competitors the four face are each other. They are also in race with each other to become the operating systems of our lives. And they never fight on other people’s terms. 

The author describes the strengths of each four in the initial part of the book and the story behind their successes. It is easy to relate to the stories and anecdotes but the perspective from the author is both fresh and humorous. 

Amazon, for instance, is said to increase its stock value at the price of decreasing stock value of every other retailer. This has been made possible with cheaper capital for a longer period of time than any firm in modern times. 

With its momentum, Amazon has expanded and become a leader in cloud computing, delivery and fulfilment businesses. Amazon CEO is very daring. He can make a crazy idea practical. The floating warehouses are a bold example. 

Google’s market capitalization of 773 billion is greater than the combined sum of the next big eight media companies. It bolsters confidence in its followers by demarcating the paid from the organic search results. And the followers keep growing with one in six queries have never been asked before. Facebook has been valued at 508 billion and is the single largest social media penetration to nearly 2.2 billion people. At the top of the layers depicting a marketing funnel, there is an awareness layer and Facebook has flooded it. 

Famously Facebook can guess when you are in love by observing the number of timeline posts which increases when you are single and decreases when you are in relationship 

Facebook is the source of news for over 67% of Americans. Google was up 60% and Facebook was up 43% when the rest of the digital advertisers were down 3%. Google and Facebook are known to be a duopoly. It may surprise us that while Twitter captures 82% of the post, Facebook captures 92% of the interactions on social media. 

Apple controlled roughly 19 percent of the smartphone market capitalization but captured 87 percent of the global smartphone profits in 2016. Apple has single-handedly put luxury in everybody’s reach. Among the Four Horsemen, Apple seems to have the best genetics by thriving past the original founder and management team. 

The source of wealth for the ten richest people in Europe seem to be Zara, L’Oreal, H&M, LVMH, Nutella, Aldi, Lidl, Trader Joe’s, Luxottica, and Crate & Barrel. They represent luxury and retail more than any other industry and Apple has mastered the luxury brand.