Web components allow developers to create reusable custom elements using existing web standards like HTML templates and shadow DOM. They consist of four main technologies - HTML templates for reusable markup, HTML imports to include dependencies, custom elements to define new types of elements with custom behavior, and shadow DOM for encapsulating styles and markup. Major browsers have implemented support for these standards to different extents, and libraries exist to simplify web component development. Companies are adopting web components for applications that benefit from encapsulated reusable UI components.