Brand Descriptions

Here you will find the description of some brands that are discussed in this course and also
used in the videos and readings. If you want to add another word or expression that we
missed, please suggest it in the forums.

A
Amazon

Amazon.com, also called Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing
company that was founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos and is based in Seattle,
Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the world by total sales and market
capitalization. Learn more about Amazon on Wikipedia.

Apple

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino,

California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and
online services. The company's hardware products include the iPhone smartphone,
the iPad tablet computer, the Mac personal computer, the iPod portable media player,
the Apple Watch smartwatch, and the Apple TV digital media player. Apple's consumer
software includes the macOS and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media player,
the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites. Its online
services include the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store and Mac App Store, Apple Music,
and iCloud. Learn more about Apple Inc. on Wikipedia.

B
Baidu

Baidu, Inc., incorporated on January 18, 2000, is a Chinese web services company
headquartered at the Baidu Campus in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the largest
Internet companies in the world. Learn more about Baidu on Wikipedia.

C
Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola (often referred to simply as Coke) is a carbonated soft drink produced by The
Coca-Cola Company. Originally intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late
19th century by John Pemberton and was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler,
whose marketing tactics led Coca-Cola to its dominance of the world soft-drink market
throughout the 20th century. The drink's name refers to two of its original ingredients, which
were kola nuts (a source of caffeine) and coca leaves. The current formula of Coca-Cola
remains a trade secret, although a variety of reported recipes and experimental recreations
have been published. Learn more about Coca-Cola on Wikipedia.
D
E
F
Facebook

Facebook is an American for-profit corporation and an online social media and social
networking service based in Menlo Park, California. The Facebook website was launched on
February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and
roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.
Learn more about Facebook on Wikipedia.

Fortune Magazine

Fortune is a multinational business magazine, published and owned by Time Inc. and
headquartered in New York City. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The
magazine competes with Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek in the national business
magazine category and distinguishes itself with long, in-depth feature articles. The magazine
regularly publishes ranked lists, perhaps best known is the Fortune 500, a ranking of
companies by revenue that it has published annually since 1955. Learn more about Fortune
Magazine on Wikipedia.

G
Google

Google is an American multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related

services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud
computing, software, and hardware. Google was founded in 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey
Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University, in California. Learn more about
Google on Wikipedia.

Groupon

Groupon is an American worldwide e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with

local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in more than 28 countries.
Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched in November 2008, the first market for Groupon
was Chicago, followed soon thereafter by Boston, New York City and Toronto. Learn more
about Groupon on Wikipedia.

H
Hulu
Hulu (stylized as hulu) is an American subscription video on-demand service owned by Hulu
LLC, a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company (through Disney–ABC Television
Group) (30%), 21st Century Fox (through Fox Entertainment Group) (30%), Comcast
(through NBCUniversal) (30%), and as of August 10, 2016, Time Warner (through Turner
Broadcasting System) (10%, minority stake). Learn more about Hulu on Wikipedia.

I
Instagram

Instagram is a mobile, desktop, and internet-based photo-sharing application and service that
allows users to share pictures and videos either publicly or privately. It was created by Kevin
Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile app exclusively
for the iOS operating system. A version for Android devices was released two years later, in
April 2012, followed by a feature-limited website interface in November 2012, and apps for
Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 in April 2016 and October 2016 respectively. Learn
more about Instagram on Wikipedia.

J
K
L
M
McDonald’s

McDonald's is an American hamburger and fast food restaurant chain. It was founded in 1940
as a barbecue restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino,
California. In 1948, they reorganized their business as a hamburger stand, using production
line principles. Learn more about McDonald’s on Wikipedia.

Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, is an American company that publishes reference books,

especially known for its dictionaries. Learn more about Merriam-Webster on Wikipedia.

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in

Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer
software, consumer electronics, and personal computers and services. Learn more about
Microsoft on Wikipedia.

N
O
P
Q
R
S
Snapchat

Snapchat is an image messaging and multimedia mobile application created by Evan Spiegel,
Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, former students at Stanford University, and developed by
Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. Learn more about Snapchat on Wikipedia.

T
The News-Gasette

The News-Gazette is a daily newspaper serving eleven counties in the eastern portion of
Central Illinois and specifically the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area. Based in
Champaign, Illinois, the paper is independently owned by the Stevick family's Professional
Impressions Media Group, which also controls local radio stations WDWS, WKIO, and
WHMS. Learn more about The News-Gasette on Wikipedia.

U
V
W
Wechat

WeChat is a Chinese social media (instant messaging, commerce and payment services)
application developed by Tencent. It was first released in 2011 and by 2017 it was one of the
largest standalone messaging apps by monthly active users, with over 938 million active
users. However, as of 2017, WeChat has not been successful in penetrating international
markets outside of China. Learn more about Wechat on Wikipedia.

Whats App

WhatsApp Messenger is a freeware, cross-platform and end-to-end encrypted instant

messaging application for smartphones. It uses the Internet to make voice calls, one to one
video calls, send text messages, images, GIF, videos, documents, user location, audio files,
phone contacts, and voice notes to other users using standard cellular mobile numbers. Learn
more about WhatsApp on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia with the aim to allow anyone to edit articles.
Wikipedia is the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet and is
ranked among the ten most popular websites. Wikipedia is owned by the nonprofit
Wikimedia Foundation. Learn more about Wikipedia on Wikipedia.

X
Y
Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Sunnyvale,

California. Yahoo was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was
incorporated on March 2, 1995. Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early internet era in the
1990s. Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, serves as CEO and President of Yahoo.
Learn more about Yahoo! on Wikipedia.

Yelp

Yelp is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It

develops, hosts and markets Yelp.com and the Yelp mobile app, which publish crowd-
sourced reviews about local businesses, as well as the online reservation service Yelp
Reservations and online food-delivery service Eat24. Learn more about Yelp on Wikipedia.

Youtube

YouTube is an American video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. The

service was created by three former PayPal employees – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and
Jawed Karim – in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65
billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries. The site allows users to
upload, view, rate, share, add to favorites, report and comment on videos, and subscribe to
other users. Learn more about Youtube on Wikipedia.