Silicon Valley lies in the southern San Francisco Bay Area, and houses many technology corporations. The area is called Silicon Valley because the fine sand called silicon used to create the computer chips used in the making of their computers and other devices. The following popular companies all have headquarters in Silicon Valley: EBay, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Electronic Arts (EA), PayPal, Intuit, Visa and Netflix; just to name a few. It began to be known Silicon Valley when news reported referred to in as so and the name stuck. Silicon Valley has contributed extraordinarily to the technological world and plays a major role in the job market and economy of the United States.