Top 8 global companies and their founders

The global world is connected with each other with just a click. And we are not talking just about the social media platforms, but also platforms that have connected buyers and sellers, buyers to buyers, and readers to information and knowledge. From innovative search engines to social media platforms, these organizations have transformed the way we communicate, consume information, and conduct business. Behind each innovation, lies a brain and a vision to change the ways of the world. This article explores ten of the world's leading technology companies and highlights the founders who conceived them and how they have revolutionized the digital landscape.

In 1995, Page and Brin, Stanford University PhD students, began working on a search engine project called "Backrub" in their dorm rooms. Interestingly the word Google is the misspelling of the mathematical term "googol", which is 1 followed by 100 zeros. It was officially established in 1998, when it received a $100,000 investment from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems.

Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, while they were still students at Harvard University. The initial plan was to create a social media platform exclusive for college students, however with initial success soon it was accessible to people across the globe and turned into the biggest social media site. As of 2024, facebook has 2.11 billion daily active users.

Instagram was co-founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. It was originally a photo sharing app, but as it gained popularity it was turned into a user interface with an emphasis on visual content. In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for approximately $1 billion.

Twitter was co-founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Noah Glass. The social media platform was originally called Twttr, but was later changed to Twitter. The microblogging service allowed short messages of no more than 280 characters. The medium soon became a preferred platform for younger generations. In 2022 Elon Musk took over twitter and rebranded it as X.

Former engineers at Yahoo, WhatsApp was co-founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum. The app was originally intended to show statuses next to users' names, indicating if they were on a call or at work, notifying their contacts if they were available. However, soon it became a famous messaging platform. In 2014 due to some losses to the company Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion.

This online video sharing platform is the second most visited website in the world. And the credit for establishing this platform goes to Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, all of whom were previously with PayPal. Launched in 2005, YouTube was a huge success and a year later it was bought by Google for $1.65 billion.

Microsoft was co-founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Their aim was to develop software for personal computers. Microsoft has established its prominence in the industry with the launch of Windows operating system, which played a crucial role in popularizing personal computing.

Amazon was originally launched as an online bookstore by Jeff Bezos in 1994. But it quickly expanded and included a wide range of products- from electronics to household goods.Over the years, Amazon has grown to become one of the largest e-commerce platforms globally, with Bezos as its CEO. However, Andrew R Jasy took over as CEO in 2021.