Business Insider has compiled a list of the Top 100 digital start-ups, where they are defining a start-up as a private company. Considering the list includes the world’s largest and most established social network, we have opted for the ‘Top Digital Companies’ route. There is a nice mix of markets representing the top of the list, here are the top 5:
1. Facebook, estimated value – $80 billion
Social network
No surprises here. The social network is everywhere and, with recent functionality updates that close the performance gap against Google Plus, and some interesting file sharing developments on the horizon, it doesn’t look like they are leaving any time soon. This is also represented by their colossal growth from a $25 billion valuation last year. All of this however does not detract from the fact that IT professionals generally prefer Twitter or Google Plus for social networking.
2. Zynga, estimated value – $11 billion
Social gaming
No surprise that the second on the list is a company that piggybacks on social networking platforms. According to data from AppData, Zynga have around 275 million monthly active users and social gaming is only set to grow. It is a good time to be leading this market, as Facebook and Google will go all out to compete for their share over the coming months, following the release of the gaming tab within Google Plus.
3. Groupon, estimated value – $10 billion
Online coupons
The daily deals website has grown by five times in the past twelve months and has been so successful that they could afford to reject a $6 billion buyout offer from Google in December. Although Groupon have essentially created their own form of marketing, there are a number of organisations looking to further develop the online voucher proposition and take their place at the head of the market. The next twelve months will be critical for Groupon, who may have to develop their offering to stay ahead of the competition. Opportunities are there to integrate with check-in and online video content, but only time will tell which way they will go.
4. Twitter, estimated value – $8 billion
Social network
Twitter continues to grow, with help in no small part to a large number of high profile celebrity and thought leader users across the world. The numbers speak for themselves, 100 million active users and 230 million tweets sent daily. Here at EmptyLemon, Twitter is our favourite social network – follow us on Twitter here. Twitter won’t be too worried about the competition as the No. 2 social network, however they will have an eye on developments from the other big players in the market. Twitter does not seem to integrate as well with other social offerings, such as gaming or video hosting, as Twitter is usually used as a sign-posting tool, as opposed to a host, for this content. Lets hope this doesn’t cause them problems over the coming months.
5. Dropbox, estimated value – $4 billion
Cloud storage
Dropbox is one of those services that, once you start using it, you can’t live without it. Being able to store your content in the cloud, and have access to it across all of your devices, all for free is obviously an attractive proposition. Dropbox make their revenue from the higher end users, with lots of content to store. We believe that they have succeeded in growing to this value by resisting the urge to charge all users, even a small amount, to amass revenue. Lots of other companies have also failed by converting free services to paid. The company will continue to do well as their service does not require a massive revamp to stay ahead of the game.
Which digital organisations do you think will be in the top 5 next year? Do you think Facebook has had it’s day? Add your thoughts below.
Alternatively, if you are an IT jobseeker, why not browse from 100′s of UK jobs using the EmptyLemon job search. There are no vacancies from the Top 5 private digital organisations, but we do have IT vacancies from the likes of Google, Tesco and Accenture.
