Chapter 9

The Fifth Horseman?

LET’S NOW APPLY OUR CHECKLIST of horseman traits to a number of
emerging companies that have the potential to become the fifth tech
giant. Where are these companies excelling, and where do they fall
short? And what will it take to be the Fifth Horseman?
This list of companies is not intended to be comprehensive—after
all, great companies regularly appear seemingly out of nowhere thanks
to a technological advance, a shift in markets, or a change in
demographics—but rather to be broad and thought provoking.
For all they have in common, the Four Horsemen occupy distinct
roles in the digital age and have come to prominence through different
paths. Two of them, Facebook and Google, dominate categories that
did not exist twenty-five years ago. The other two, Amazon and Apple,
are in well-established sectors. But while Amazon has overwhelmed its
competition through brutally efficient operational prowess and access
to cheap capital, Apple led product innovation and secured leadership
at the high end—creating entirely new multibillion-dollar product
categories and one of the world’s great aspirational brands. Facebook
had a billion users before its founder turned thirty-two, while Apple
took a generation to mature into the globally dominant company it is
today.
We should not presume, then, that the next company to emerge as
a shaper of the digital age—a Fifth Horseman—will necessarily come
from an obviously digital-age industry, or be a highly touted unicorn