Roblox operates an online video game platform with 80 million daily active users that lets young gamers create, develop, and monetize games (or “experiences”) for other players. The firm offers its developers a hybrid of a game engine, publishing platform, online hosting and services, marketplace with payment processing, and social network. The platform is a closed garden that Roblox controls, earning $3.5 billion in bookings in 2023 through in-game purchases and advertising while benefiting from outsourced game development. Unlike traditional video game publishers, Roblox is more focused on the creation of new tools and monetization techniques for its developers than creating new games or franchises.

Meta is the largest social media company in the world, boasting close to 4 billion monthly active users worldwide. The firm’s “Family of Apps,” its core business, consists of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. End users can leverage these applications for a variety of different purposes, from keeping in touch with friends to following celebrities and running digital businesses for free. Meta packages customer data, gleaned from its application ecosystem and sells ads to digital advertisers. While the firm has been investing heavily in its Reality Labs business, it remains a very small part of Meta’s overall sales.

Tesla is a vertically integrated battery electric vehicle automaker and developer of autonomous driving software. The company has multiple vehicles in its fleet, which include luxury and midsize sedans, crossover SUVs, a light truck, and a semi truck. Tesla also plans to begin selling more affordable vehicles, a sports car, and a robotaxi. Global deliveries in 2023 were a little over 1.8 million vehicles. The company sells batteries for stationary storage for residential and commercial properties including utilities and solar panels and solar roofs for energy generation. Tesla also owns a fast-charging network.

Netflix’s relatively simple business model involves only one business, its streaming service. It has the biggest television entertainment subscriber base in both the United States and the collective international market, with more than 280 million subscribers globally. Netflix has exposure to nearly the entire global population outside of China. The firm has traditionally avoided live programming or sports content, instead focusing on on-demand access to episodic television, movies, and documentaries. The firm recently began introducing ad-supported subscription plans, giving the firm exposure to the advertising market in addition to the subscription fees that have historically accounted for nearly all its revenue.