Most of the big-data processing stack (Hadoop, Spark, Tez, HBase etc) only really exists because adtech companies needed to process mountains of garbage logs and cookie data in daily batch jobs. So they developed big-data libraries capable of it.
But those technologies are now used pretty widely across the whole tech industry, including in the hard sciences.
and don't forget. The internet porn industry pretty much invented the streaming video tech. we all take for granted. In fact, there use to be a saying that no Internet innovation can be considered a success until it has been adopted by the online porn industry.
But those technologies are now used pretty widely across the whole tech industry, including in the hard sciences.