THE DOLLARS ARE JUST GETTING SO BIG.

brokerage firm. The technology giants are expected to earn more than US$50 billion each, before interest and tax, in 2020, according to analyst forecast data compiled by Bloomberg.

This is particularly worrying for Apple investors, who are expecting the App Store to support the growth of the company’s services business.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is susceptible given its legal problems. A recent European Union antitrust ruling requires the company to stop automatically installing its app store on Android phones in Europe. (Google is fighting the charges.) That may compel more app makers to circumvent Google, luring in customers through the web or through partnerships with other companies. “Around the world, everyone is looking for ways to push back against American tech,” to Netflix’s website.

On iPhones in the U.S., Netflix was the No. 1 entertainment app by consumer spend and the most downloaded entertainment app on the Google Play store over the last 90 days, according to App Annie, which tracks the industry.

The video game industry has also worked to avoid app store taxes this year. Valve’s Steam, the largest distributor of video games for PCs, planned to release a free iPhone app that let gamers keep playing while away from their computers. Apple blocked the app. Soon after, the tech giant updated its app review guidelines to ban anything that looks like an app store within an app or gives users the ability to “browse, select, or purchase software not already owned or licensed by the user,” according to Reuters.