HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why Isn't Microsoft Included in FAANG?

15 points by paulddraper ↗ HN
Supposed question, but this acronym appears everywhere on Hacker News?

Is FAANG supposed to be big high-tech companies?

How did Netflix make the cut but not Microsoft?

22 comments

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detaro
It was a stock market term originally, for hot tech-y stocks. At that time, Microsoft already was already old and boring. And now it's stuck as a somewhat generic catch-all.
paulddraper
> Microsoft already was already old and boring

I'll leave "boring" to other judges, but Microsoft predates Apple by all of one year in the 1970s.

gshdg
Yes. But at the point Apple became a rocket ship with the iPhone et al and the other FAANG companies were taking off, MS was stagnating.
renaudg
Other acronyms are in use to refer to tech giants, like GAFAM (which does include Microsoft but leaves out Netflix)
non-entity
I swear before just FAANG became popular people just used Big 4/5 as with other industries
blaser-waffle
FAANG aka fang or fangs also rolls of the tongue a lot better than GAFAM, which sounds like a sneezing noise.

But I believe FAANG referred to hot, fast growth tech companies with forward looking mentalities and high salaries. Microsoft was already a dominant player, practically monopoly in places, and wasn't a "growth" stock as much as a "store value" stock.

paulddraper
MSFT is up 300% in 5 years.

NFLX is up 400%, and AAPL is up 250%.

mountainhigh
>GAFAM, which sounds like a sneezing noise.

There's been a different acronym going around: The G-MAFIA as in G(oogle) M(icrosoft) A(mazon) F(acebook) I(BM) A(pple).

[dead] mitfahrener
MAGA is better. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon.
lacker
The real injustice is that Netflix is included. It’s a lot smaller than the others. I’m pretty sure it’s to make the acronym sound better. FANG sounds better than FAAG.

IMO the lesson is that making groups of items in acronyms is not a great way to analyze the world. Remember the BRIC group of countries? Well, China took off, and the others didn’t follow the same path at all.

askafriend
The acronym was initially based on stock growth and later some people started using it as a proxy for compensation.

Netflix has some of the highest all-cash compensation in the industry. Compensation is easily $450k+ in cash per year for a regular senior dev at Netflix.

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beamatronic
Maybe I’m remembering wrong but my impression of the FAANG term was that they all had fast stock growth and were known for paying high salaries. In fact a whole separate realm of high total comp.
paulddraper
> whole separate realm of high total comp.

In that case, I wonder how Apple made the cut but not Microsoft.

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fgonzag
Microsoft did not enjoy the same reputation during the ballmer days as right now
[dead] soulchild37
If Microsoft is included, it'll probably become FAGMAN lol
pansa2
Because that would make it harder to pronounce.
kleer001
FAANG is a handy bacronym used to get the hype up and counter any FUD. In a word it's non-sense.