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Comment by wink | Hacker News Reader

Interesting tidbit: they mention GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon), a term I had never heard.

I knew FAANG (+Netflix) but maybe the scope is different, or Netflix is the odd one out for whatever reasons...

The french wiki on GAFAM is really interesting because it gives an outsiders perspective on American tech companies and it is pretty biased [0]. (If you are on chrome, it should offer to auto translate for you and google translate is ridiculously good these days)

Here is one of my favorite qoutes: "In terms of competition, GAFAM has the power to buy up all up-and-coming innovative companies and thus prevent competition from being dethroned (as competition becomes a subsidiary). This situation is often denounced by the European Union , notably by its Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager."

It even coined the term NATU for Netflix, Airbnb, Tesla, and Uber.

[0]: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAFAM

Thanks for the pointer to the French Wikipedia article. I followed the rabbit hole and found this interesting article on the Google Maven fiasco, Microsoft ICE fiasco, and the Amazon Rekognition fiasco: http://www.lefigaro.fr/secteur/high-tech/2018/06/20/32001-20...

I can understand the French/European's perspective because American companies, especially the GAFAM titans, do have a lot of power and influence. I'd say these companies are among the most powerful in the entire history of our civilization.

That being said, it's up to Europe to compete and offer meaningful alternatives to these companies.

My understanding is that GAFA (sometimes GAFAM, including Microsoft) is a european term, while FAANG is an american one.

GAFA is also a fairly well-known acronym for the big empty bit in the middle of Australia, so FAANG or FANAG is less conflicting

I didn't know that. Is it well-known & used outside of Australia?

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