THE SECRET OF THE INTERNET: WHAT THE WORLD'S BIGGEST TECH COMPANIES HAVE IN COMMON.

• Author: Woodbury, Joseph
• Position: SILICON SLOPES

In 1994, Jeff Bezos left his position as vice president of a Wall Street firm to do the unthinkable: connect writers and publishers directly to their readers. No middleman. No inhouse barista. No fancy displays. No one to prescreen likely bestsellers or optimize for the best print margins. If you could publish it, Amazon would sell it. It instantly became "Earth's Biggest Book Store."

Bezos saw something in the tea leaves that others didn't, and something about Amazon's model helped it weather the dot-com bubble a few short years later, while so many other successful internet companies failed. In 2000, bankruptcy replaced IPOs, and the future of the internet became uncertain. But not for Amazon and Bezos. Amazon survived, and so did the internet.

THRIVING, NOT SURVIVING

After the internet recovery, thousands of tech companies began, once again, to leverage the internet for high growth and returns. But certain companies began to rise to the top and dominate the headlines. This was the age of Google and eBay, then Netflix and Facebook. In fact, as of May of last year, the six largest internet-based companies in the United States were Google, Amazon, Facebook, Priceline, Uber and Netflix, respectively. Commonly referred to as the "tech giants," these behemoths have amassed a combined valuation of over $2 trillion (more than the next top 20 internet-based companies combined).

Again, there is clearly something fundamentally different about these companies that pushed them to the top.

THE AGE OF THE MARKETPLACE

So what is it that makes these tech giants different from the rest of the successful companies out there? What do the tech giants have in common with each other? The answer: each of these companies is a marketplace.

Oh, so you've never thought of Google as a marketplace? Of course, Amazon is easy to understand. There are buyers and there are sellers, and they come together to form a relationship on Amazon.com. But likewise, Google is simply a marketplace where creators of websites and consumers of websites meet up for the first time. Need a place to listen to music? Google your question, and get connected to Spotify's music. Need a place to store your car, boat or boxes? Google it, and meet Neighbor for the first time.

Netflix is also a marketplace connecting TV and movie studios with eyeballs everywhere. Facebook connects friends with, well, friends. Priceline connects hotels with travelers. And of course, Uber connects Francine and her...