Microsoft demonstrating impressive longevity. Identity crisis for Meta?

Microsoft is keeping its solid position as the third richest company in the world. In recent months the company was even upgraded to 2nd place. Given the volatility of the market particularly for high-technology companies, 2025 is unpredictable. But it is not unrealistic to expect that this year Microsoft could be back at the top as the richest company in the world. The top three companies are the only ones surpassing 3 trillions in market capitalization. The company in fourth place is almost 1 trillion behind Microsoft. Based on the current numbers, it may seem higher the probabilities for Microsoft to become the number one in the world again, than for the company to be downgraded to the 4th place. Microsoft's longevity is outstanding, considering how technologies have changed since the 90’s when Microsoft started its worldwide success with the graphical user interfaces incorporated as part of its operating systems for desktop computers that dominated the world and saw the advent of the Internet. In a few words, Microsoft is not a legacy company and it is still fighting with realistic possibilities to have the crown of richest company in the world again, maybe somewhere in 2025. Interestingly enough, Microsoft’s current great position in market capitalization has not been achieved by dominating the mobile phone market, where they probably arrived too late and lost the battle to Apple (iPhone), Samsung and Android (Google). But Microsoft seems to be arriving early enough and navigating with success the Artificial Intelligence revolution, where the company already has great technologies to offer and make profitable for the present and the future.

Meta Platforms could be in a difficult position in terms of consistency regarding its political alignments and policies for the platform. In a blog post on the company's website by Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer, published on January 7th, 2025, Meta recognizes in its effort to respond to societal and political pressure to moderate content, their systems have made too many mistakes with false positives, meaning penalizing harmless content in a way that became a form of censorship. The blog post even used the term "Facebook jail" to refer to how some people were wrongly locked up in that status of being censored for not justifiable reason. The conclusion Meta makes in that post is: “We want to fix that and return to that fundamental commitment to free expression.” Saying that is in a way recognizing that they were deviating from the fundamental commitment to free expression, and moving in the direction of censorship. An identity crisis may be extreme to describe the change in the route Facebook is trying to take now. But there is an incoming new administration to the Government of the United States, and Meta is likely trying to prepare to work with this new administration in a way that is beneficial to both parties, and where they are not hostile to each other.