Unpopular opinion: the use of "tech" or "high tech" to describe many of today's tech companies is a misnomer.
For me, a tech company is a company that leverages advances in applied sciences and mathematics (computer science included) to create new, innovative solutions.
While there are certainly companies that are innovating in fundamental technologies and making that a cornerstone of their businesses, the vast majority of tech companies are little more than conventional businesses with some digital business automation plumbing. Innovative business models are still innovation - don't get me wrong - but they're not technology innovation.
It made sense to call e-business "tech" companies when the web was fresh and new and everyone was innovating, but these days, very few are pushing the envelope on the technology side. It's pretty well accepted that any business needs electronic technologies to work now: at what point do we stop calling every company that builds an app tied to a database a "tech" company and just call them an "[insert vertical here] business"?
I definitely agree, but with one exception: a fair amount of these companies have reached such a scale that they actually have to invent or at least develop new tech in order to run their business. Facebook and Twitter, for example, aren't primarily "tech" companies, but because they operate at such an insane scale, they regularly develop new tech that allows them to continue and grow. So the tech part is more or less vertical integration - not their primary business, but also definitely not negligible in terms of innovation.
I guess the question is: how close does technology R&D need to be to the core business to be a "tech" company? I don't have a good answer. Major automakers dump tons of money into R&D, but we'd never call them tech companies.
For me, a tech company is a company that leverages advances in applied sciences and mathematics (computer science included) to create new, innovative solutions.
While there are certainly companies that are innovating in fundamental technologies and making that a cornerstone of their businesses, the vast majority of tech companies are little more than conventional businesses with some digital business automation plumbing. Innovative business models are still innovation - don't get me wrong - but they're not technology innovation.
It made sense to call e-business "tech" companies when the web was fresh and new and everyone was innovating, but these days, very few are pushing the envelope on the technology side. It's pretty well accepted that any business needs electronic technologies to work now: at what point do we stop calling every company that builds an app tied to a database a "tech" company and just call them an "[insert vertical here] business"?