I'm referring to the fact that these companies and corporations essentially own their respective markets to the point that it's futile to attempt to provide an alternative. Any emerging services that do show potential are often bought by one of these larger groups (YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram etc), and it's rather difficult to imagine them going anywhere anytime soon.
I've been wondering if any organized bodies in the past existed in a similar way. Obviously I'm not expecting any multinationals, bud did these titans of business and industry arise in the past, and what happened to bring about their ultimate demise?
I'm not a historian myself, but i'm certain there are historical examples from several different periods. A few come to mind as being preeminent within a given economy or at least unassailably powerful for a given time.
Off the top of my head, the most likely candidates would be the British East India Company ( I've seen reports stating that they were responsible for 20-25% of the entire British GDP at certain historical points!! Imagine a company worth 25% of American GDP now!), or somewhat later on examples such as Standard Oil (Rockefeller- somewhat unique in that he attempted to own every single portion of the process of drilling, refining, transporting, and so on that was involved with oil as WELL as buying out most competition, examples of the vertical and horizontal integration necessation for this amount of market dominance) and Carnegie Steel (obviously Carnegie, later US Steel).
These are only some examples. I'd argue that they exerted far more dominance than any modern examples, though I'm not well versed enough in the subject to say for sure.
As for their eventual fall, well, standard oil was disassembled by the US Supreme Court in 1911 due to it being an obvious monopoly. By then Rockefeller had already become the first modern private billionaire. Carnegie Steel merged/was absorbed into U.S. steel, which is still around. I'm not sure for the British east India company. But Rockefeller and Carnegie are still huge names in the US. Their summer cottages are worth more than most of us will ever see in our lives.
That being said, it's an interesting point you make. These enormous corporations now have the clout and funds to purchase all innovation in their field, meaning it's likely more profitable at least in the short term to join with them rather than try to be a serious competitor. I'm interested to see how this will play out economically in the future.