Companies using Python choose the language largely because of its ease of use and high-level capabilities.
In May 2021, Python was ranked the second most popular language by the TIOBE index. And the wide usage of Python similarly indicates the language’s strength.
Developers can use the Python programming language for a diverse range of applications from building web apps to creating games, and even machine learning.
Because of Python’s versatility and dexterity, companies using Python are often global in scale. To better understand how Python can be useful for your own business, take a look at these 16 global companies using Python:
- Quora
- Amazon
- Stripe
- Spotify
- Netflix
- Uber
- Dropbox
- NASA
- Instacart
- Lyft
- Industrial Light and Magic
Throughout this piece, you’ll learn more about Python as a programming language and how it is implemented into the tech stacks of various major companies. Keep reading!
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What Is Python?
Python is a high-level general-purpose programming language. Although you can use Python for front-end development, most developers agree that Python works best for back-end development.
Some other important features of Python are that it is dynamically typed, garbage-collected, and interpreted.
As an interpreted language, this means that Python doesn’t directly translate programming into machine code as compiled languages do. While the disadvantage of this is slower execution at runtime, it does allow for dynamic typing.
Dynamically typed languages perform type-checking at runtime. This means that type errors occur only once developers run a program.
But on the plus side, dynamic typing usually elicits more flexibility and more concise coding. And coders do not have to declare a variable expressly.
With garbage collection, Python can automatically manage the memory in a program by dumping any objects that no longer need to be referenced.
These details are just the nooks and crannies of Python’s overall architecture. What drives the global companies using Python to choose this language over others is likely Python’s design philosophy.
Guido van Rossum started designing Python in the late 1980s taking careful note to emphasize code readability in its structure and syntax.
This emphasis naturally results in improved productivity for developers, thanks to the intuitiveness and simplicity of the language.
Python’s use of significant whitespace, rather than the brackets that other languages tend to use to parse blocks of code, stands out as one of the defining features of the language. It’s a utilitarian example of how Python’s design philosophy works with the language in practice.
There is even a document called the Zen of Python summarizing several guidelines behind Python’s core philosophy.
What Are the Advantages of Using Python?
There are many advantages to using Python. Below are a few of the main advantages leading companies using Python to choose the language for their tech stack in the first place.
Easy
Python is easy in more than one way. It’s easy to read, nearly replicating the English language in composition. Likewise, it is easy to write.
Of course, developers who can understand the code they’re writing do much better than those who don’t.
Global companies using Python can rest assured that their developers are spending less time in Stack Overflow and more time developing.
But besides basic comprehension, code that is easier to write is by definition high-yielding. For example, it takes fewer lines of code to perform a task in Python than using another popular, high-level programming language like Java or C.
In consequence, businesses can speed up development time and decrease their time-to-market (TTM), giving them more leverage to keep up with the competition.
Related reading: Python vs. Java: Side-By-Side Comparison
In-Demand
Like most programming languages, Python is free. It’s also open-source, meaning developers can modify elements of the language to their needs. But more importantly, Python is popular.
All the above characteristics contribute to the fact that the language is in high demand. Python is accessible, both in usage and syntax. And all the companies using Python only further this cyclical chain of demand and implementation.
Popular technologies strive because of their large and dedicated communities which offer tactical solutions to developers in need.
For your own benefit, note that an in-demand language will guarantee that you have a large pool of Python developers to choose from for your next Python project. The larger the pool, the less difficult it will be to find bonafide talent.
Scalable
Judging from the growing list of global companies using Python, it’s clear that Python is scalable.
In this regard, Python’s utility for a wide array of applications truly shines. First of all, Python supports multiple programming paradigms, including structured, procedural, functional, and object-oriented programming (OOP).
OOP and class structures often serve as the foundation for large-scale software applications.
Python also has sound libraries for machine learning and artificial intelligence, exemplifying just how far-reaching the language is.
Data science is another subject in which Python excels, with financial technology routinely relying on the Python language.
Not to mention, Python is conducive for game development as well, with big names like Sims 4 and Eve Online owing their existence to the infamous Python.
In short, Python can do many things and most of the things Python can do are objectively exceptional.
16 Global Companies Using Python
Now that you have a greater understanding of what Python is and what it can do for your business, you can heed a closer analysis of how other companies are using Python.
1. Google
Hopefully, Google needs little to no explanation. In fact, it’s fairly safe to bet that you’re using a product of Google, whether that’s your search engine, web browser, or both.
Python is one of Google’s official server-side languages, along with C++, Java, and Go.
Peter Norvig, the director of research at Google, and former director of search quality maintains that, “Python has been an important part of Google since the beginning, and remains so as the system grows and evolves.”
Google uses Python for many of its most well-known applications, including Youtube, which you’re surely familiar with.
2. Facebook
Facebook, the social network that doesn’t get enough credit for coining the ‘poke’, is one of the many companies using Python.
With a net worth of nearly 900 billion US dollars as of May 18, 2021, Facebook has gained mass popularity over the years. Therefore, understanding the technology behind Facebook’s success is essential.
The use of Python on Facebook’s back-end is mostly for production engineering, a specific sector of development at Facebook that combines systems and software engineering.
Essentially, the production engineering team is responsible for making sure that well over two billion people around the world can depend on Facebook to run smoothly. Python plays a pretty big part in this process.
3. Quora
Quora is a mix between a social media network and a question-and-answer platform.
Ironically, a question posted to Quora about the programming languages in use for the website prompted a reply from Adam D’ Angelo, the CEO of Quora himself.
D’ Angelo asserted that using Python was simply less “painful” than writing programs in another language like Java.
At the time, Quora engineers also believed that Python would evolve with the website, or in other words — scale up.
Considering that in 2020, Quora was able to garner 300 unique users per month to visit its platform, this certainly isn’t far from the truth.
4. PayPal
Day by day, PayPal is helping people keep their money safe through convenient and secure transactions via the PayPal platform.
PayPal uses Python across its entire infrastructure and one of the most shared articles on Python, “10 Myths of Enterprise Python” is credited to the official PayPal Engineering writers on Medium.
Thus, if you enjoy using PayPal, keep in mind that PayPal is yet another global company using Python.
5. Stripe
Though the name Stripe may seem unfamiliar, you might be using Stripe more than you know. Stripe is a fintech startup giving companies the ability to accept online payments.
Major companies such as Amazon and Lyft utilize Stripe as part of their platforms, making Stripe a major company itself; it is also another of the dozens of global companies using Python.
Using Python, Stripe built its application programming interface (API) for cross-compatibility with mobile applications and websites.
6. Instagram
Instagram offers an alternative medium for social media where content is largely visual. Most of Instagram’s business logic relies on Python.
In software development, business logic refers to the operations occurring on the back-end that facilitate the exchange of data between the database and user interface (UI).
To put it simply, Python has a central role in how Instagram operates, powering the interactions of over a billion users daily.
7. Spotify
Long gone are the days where you have to be worried about your phone, or even better, your MP3 player, running out of space because of all the music you have in storage.
Instead, there’s Spotify, which permits users to stream music for free. Spotify uses Python for its back-end services and for data analysis.
What’s more, Spotify sponsors international Python conferences, namely PyCon and Euro Python. From this, you can infer that Spotify is very eager about its use of Python.
8. Netflix
Netflix is a content platform where users can binge-watch TV shows and films of all kinds from a singular web app. Users access Netflix from a smartphone, tablet, smart TV, or even a video game console.
The fact that Netflix is using Python is well-known and well-advertised. Several tech-oriented news sites have spoken enthusiastically about how Netflix uses Python, including Netflix’s very own tech blog.
Python is a facet of many internal structures of Netflix, including but not limited to:
- Open Connect, a content delivery network (CDN)
- Demand Engineering, a component of Netflix’s network availability that works to prevent latencies and improve user experience (UX)
- Experimentation, a platform to perform AB tests and other experiments
- CORE, a team that uses data analysis to alert relevant parties about system issues
- Animation & VFX, a subsection of Netflix for creating animated content and video effects
9. Uber
Uber started as a rideshare service with the aim to make passengers feel more secure in addition to extending convenience at a cheap rate.
Since, Uber has expanded its services to UberEats, a food delivery service.
Python and Node.js power most of the services at Uber, with Go and Java also being functional pieces of Uber’s tech stack. Tornado is Uber’s Python framework of choice.
10. Reddit
Reddit is a bit of an underdog in the social networking community. Reserved for those who enjoy the pleasures of cruising internet black holes, Reddit is a network of communities formatted as a plethora of discussion forums and related subforums.
Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, the two surviving co-founders of Reddit — Aaron Swarts being the third — presented at PyCon in 2009, naming Python’s large assortment of libraries as one of the reasons Reddit continues to use Python.
11. Dropbox
When Dropbox first became a technology of regular use, it was one of the original cloud services to go mainstream. Through Dropbox, users can host files of almost any sort and access them through the internet.
Engineers at Dropbox use Python for many reasons; the language’s cross-platform support, ease of learning, and readability are its biggest strengths.
12. Pinterest
The best way to describe Pinterest is to call it an online scrapbook. Users on Pinterest can share their interests by way of visual pins that depict their hobbies, design ideas, lifestyle inspirations, and more.
In the application layer of Pinterest, developers use Python, specifically Django, while reserving Tornado and a sprinkle of Node.js for the web servers.
13. NASA
It might be hard to imagine that NASA is another name on the list of global companies using Python, but it is.
NASA, or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, primarily uses Python in their Workflow Automation System (WAS) for shuttle mission planning and data management.
Python’s ease of use permits NASA to meet project specifications without being set back by unnecessary complexities.
NASA also uses Python for a number of other projects which can be found on their website summarizing NASA’s open-source projects.
14. Instacart
Instacarts grants the average person the comfort of home-delivered goods. Grocery delivery was never so accessible.
With Instacart using Python and Ruby on its back-end, the logistics of allocating shoppers to buyers in an orderly and timely manner is not any more difficult than solving 2 + 2. (Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but you get the idea.)
15. Lyft
Lyft is Uber’s doppelganger, if you will. But depending on the person, pricing, and location, there are different preferences all around as to whether Lyft or Uber can get the job done — that is, getting people from point A to point B.
In short, Lyft uses a lot of Python. The evidence? Roy Williams, the tech lead manager at Lyft, gets down to the dirt and grit of programming in Python on many of his Medium articles for Lyft Engineering.
16. Industrial Light and Magic
Star Wars fans should be glad to learn more trivia facts behind the franchise’s success. Industrial Light and Magic, for instance, is a visual effects company founded by the notorious George Lucas.
Without a doubt, Industrial Light and Magic, was and is a VIP in the making of the Star Wars films.
Python was a key element in moving towards more CGI-intensive filmmaking. Computer-generated images (CGIs) are the result of a revolutionary digital transformation that all science fiction lovers should be grateful for.
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Conclusion
If the success of a major company serves as any justification for how well your business can use Python successfully, then hopefully these 16 global companies using Python served their purpose well.
Python is a developer favorite amongst programming languages because it has the ability to do grand things without overly complicating the code itself.
Figuring out what tools will ultimately further your business’s growth is a big decision. But you will need to have the right developers to use those tools, just the same.
Looking for qualified and experienced Python developers? Look no further. Trio is here to help.
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