I have a sneaking suspicion that with every dissolved monopoly future monopolies get stronger. They must religiously case study all prior cases and strengthen the right areas.
I think the reason they seem bigger is because the economy is bigger, and so in dollar and output terms they are bigger. But that also means there are more niches and greater complexity, and it becomes harder to sustain a monopoly against multiple competitive threats over time. While the playbook of monopoly managers has expanded since 1900, the number of adversaries they face has expanded faster.
This is a great comment to put things in perspective. It’s easy to forget that Google has only had “dominance” for about a decade. They have diversified quite a lot though (autonomous vehicles, the mobile market etc). And Apple literally have enough cash stockpiled to takeover countries if they choose to wage war. It’s all pretty fleeting though.
Additionally, it's important to remember that all of the largest american oil companies today are descendants of standard oil, and I imagine such could very well be likely if any of these other big monopolies were broken up today when it comes to the internet.
The Facebook/CA scandal broke in traditional media, and traditional media hasn't exactly been downplaying the possibility of Facebook-powered "fake news" influencing of elections, either. I think that tells you everything you need to know about the purported monopolisation of the media by Facebook.
Seems realistic to me, when capitalism stops working as envisaged by its own founder, because the mechanism of the state gets bought out by the capitalists, and isn't enforcing anti-trust laws or competition.