Gig companies use the platform myth—that a business is not defined by the service it provides but the technology it uses—to evade treating their workers like employees. Yet this branding switcheroo has spread beyond Silicon Valley. Some of the companies that have embraced the trend of insisting that they’re so much more than their core businesses:
Audi: “We are a tech company that happens to make cars.”
Zappos: “We’re a service company that just happens to sell shoes.”
Big River Steel: “At our core, we’re a technology company. We just happen to make steel.”
Shea Homes: “We’re a service company that just so happens to build homes.”
Wild Alaskan: “Wild Alaskan is a tech company that happens to sell seafood.”
Delta: “We’re a Customer Service Company that just happens to fly airplanes.”
WestJet: “A digital company that happens to fly airplanes.”
Fidelity: “A technology company that happens to be in financial services.”
Sweetgreen: “We want to go beyond a food company and become a platform.”
Metals.com: “We’re not really a gold and silver company, we’re a technology company.”
Facebook: “We’re a technology company. We’re not a media company.”
Marriott: “We are a media company now.”
Juul: “We’re not a big tobacco company.”
WeWork: “We are not a real estate company…We are a community company.”
White Castle: “We’re not a hamburger company, we’re a slider company.”
McDonald’s: “We’re not just a hamburger company serving people; we’re a people company serving hamburgers.”
Equine Express: “We are not a transportation company who does horses, we are horse people who do transportation.”
(Honorable mention) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, 1999: “We’re not a book company. We’re not a music company. We’re not a video company. We’re not an auctions company. We’re a customer company.”
