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Isn't Uber an obvious transportation company?

Isn't AirBnB an obvious hospitality company?

It's an interesting point. If drivers are employees, I'd call them a transportation company. If they aren't, I'd call them a tech company. Analogous logic for Airbnb. But it seems like too subtle a distinction to be reasonable. More likely, "tech company" just isn't a super useful label anymore, with the grey area growing and growing.

I tend to view tech companies as companies that consider custom tech a competitive advantage and attempt to maintain in-house competency.

If you're a grocery chain and you contract out most of your technical needs then you aren't a tech company. But if you're a grocery chain and you hire and maintain a large technical team to provide you with various custom pieces of technology, you're both a grocery chain and a tech company.

This could be any piece of tech: from custom software to custom refrigeration systems.

This is a great way to think about it.

Uber is not buying cars and transporting people, Uber is a technologic middle man, a tech tool.

AirBnB is not buying houses to rent, it's a web middleman.

Amazon does sell stuff directly, so it's retail not tech.

All these 3 companies are well categorized, WeWork is not, WeWork buys properties to rent, it's just that, nothing that Regus isn't.

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