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Guess How Much You’re Worth to These Big Tech Companies

It’s the age of the Apple Watch, Google Glass, self driving Google cars, 3D printers—and if you need something to eat for lunch, hundreds of reviews are only a tap away. It’s the age of internet tech businesses, and they are making tons of money. And what better way to look at that dollar amount than your worth to the company? The market cap of these companies equals the shares multiplied by the price of each share. So what? Well, how's $363 billion sound? Good right? But, how do you factor into that huge dollar amount?

Let's take a look at each major tech company and determine your individual worth:

1. Google

So, now that they have that much money—you, as a user of that company and a participant of what they do, are an important part of that company. We can figure out how much you are worth to the company by dividing the number of users, from their market cap. So 2 billion of you, you're worth $182 to Google. Disappointed?

Well, Google earns a lot of money, but it also has more users than most every other tech company there is. They generate 90% of their revenue from advertising—so it makes sense that they make so much money, but it also makes sense that your value is relatively small compared to other companies.

2. Facebook

Facebook is continuing its huge lead in the social network industry with a market cap of $227 billion, and 1.4 billion users—which makes you worth $158. It's made some great investments recently, like the Oculus Rift and the famous social photo network Instagram (another notable player in the social market).

3. Alibaba

Alibaba is a chinese e-commerce company with a market cap of $217 billion with 350 million users valued at $621 each. It's making some big moves lately, with major investments in other retail companies looking to push forward in the consumer electronic industry.

4. Amazon

Amazon has a market cap at $198 billion, but it's active user count is only 270 million, which makes your value to the company $733. Each user is spending a lot of money through Amazon, and Amazon makes their money this way (also they sell a lot of Kindles!)—instead of through a primary income coming from advertisements like Google.

5. Tencent

Tencent is a Chinese investment company with various offerings including chat platforms, online games, and online advertising services. It has a market cap of $195 billion with 2 billion users making you worth $96. Tencent is a rising company competing with the best, even if you might not have heard of it in America yet.

6. Ebay

Ebay, the buy-sell bidding auction mogul has a market cap of $71 billion with 152 million users valued at $474. That's a high price point for a user, and it's not surprising given that most people who frequent the site are making transactions and giving eBay various cuts of their payments.

7. Yahoo

Yahoo is many things—a news site, an online gaming platform where nerds can play chess or play it cool with pool, financial data, emailing and searching—the list goes on (it's sorta like a more purple Google, except it makes less money.) Regardless, it still has a market cap of $42 billion, 600 millions users who are worth $70. The company has a significant stake in the successful Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, but investors and critics aren't too excited about the course of Yahoo, with CEO controversies and lackluster earnings.

8. LinkedIn

Ah, LinkedIn. With a market cap of $24 billion and 364 million users looking to get a half-decent job, it's still a bit behind it's more socially inclined competitors. Your value to the company is only $69. However, I still think Linkedin feels a good sized niche, and plenty of recruiters and users make use of premium paid features to keep the company afloat.

9. Twitter

Twitter's market cap is a fraction of Facebook's at $24 billion, and almost one-fifth of Facebook's user base with 302 million users. Twitter's on a bit of a slippery slope, as it has problems increasing its user base, scaling bigger, and deciding who its next CEO is going to be. That said, it's not giving up yet. Its recently made a great deal with the NFL to push out Football news through its micro-blogging platform.

10. Groupon

Groupon. the online coupon company, has a market cap of $4 billion with 160 million users valued at $28 each. The company has created an attractive spot in the online industry, but earnings aren't looking so hot with this year's earnings dropping lower and lower.

11. Yelp

Yelp has a market cap of $3 billion with 142 million users valued each at $25—which isn't surprising, since users don't pay much and the company makes most of their money by selling ads to businesses who never want to buy them. The company doesn't generate as much revenue as they want, and they argue they are investing money to make more money.

12. Zynga

Zynga sits at the bottom, with a market cap of $2.7 billion (this is the lowest on our list), and a shrinking user base of 100 million—which makes your value as a user only $28. Things aren't going so well for the social gaming company as the user base has continued to shrink since 2012. The company is struggling to keep users interested, but maybe it’s just that people are finally starting to get bored of Farmville and the other plethora of games Zynga now runs (or they started farming IRL).

Are you surprised you aren’t worth more to these big companies? Less? Each individual company has varying market caps and user populations, different strategies, and paths toward success. Are you as sick of farmville games as we are?

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Correction: September 7th, 2015

An earlier version of this article showed the wrong Amazon's value per user in the main image.

Source: Table 1

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