While established players like Adobe, Salesforce, and Marketo are rarely mentioned in the same breath as tech’s “Frightful Five“—Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft—there is increasing evidence that tech’s giants are eyeing martech. And they’re bringing superior talent, vertical advantages, and astronomical budgets with them.

Look at it this way: the dynamic is already widespread on Google. Because of Google’s monopolistic control over the search engine space, SEO and martech tools are beholden to Google’s whims. Ultimately, Google controls the flow of data. If it wanted to cut off a company like Moz and build its own tool, it could. The push into martech has already begun. Amazon offers a marketing stack under the Alexa banner, while Amazon Web Services dominates cloud-computing. 

According to Brinker, there’s an even bigger disruptive force coming from tech giants: new client interfaces like Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Google Home, VR and AR, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Voice-enabled computing and other new client interface technologies could disrupt the entire customer journey. Rather than visit a homepage or a company Facebook page, potential customers could simply tell their Alexa devices to buy a product. Amazon becomes the only player in that experience, leaving martech vendors on the outside looking in. Eventually, marketers may have to use software provided by these major platforms just to survive.