What are we calling what used to be called FAANG these days? | Hacker News Reader

What are we calling what used to be called FAANG these days?

10 pointssumitviii30 comments

I am posting this for several reasons.

1. I don't like the original acronym as it leaves out Microsoft.

2. Google renamed to Alphabet and Facebook renamed to Meta since then.

3. I don't know if N stands for Nvidia or Netflix.

What do we have now? Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Nvidia? Is it MMAAANN? or MAANMAN? What is it?

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M'NAMANA

Solves all your issues and comes with a catchy theme tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTXyXuqfBLA&t=2

I prefer naan m'am because it elicits an accurate allegory of someone stuffing us full of carbs making us fat and unhealthy, just like the naan m'am companies are doing dumping software below cost on the market to kill healthier options that don't violate your privacy in pursuit of surveillance capitalism

I'm hoping we use this as an opportunity to move past the whole idea, because this isn't the last time that list will change. It's a badly named variable. Just say which companies you mean, or say "leading tech companies" or "big tech" if you absolutely have to.

like isn't nasdaq-5 exactly what this is?

TBH, people still say "FAANG", and it still works. Many acronyms stop being literal acronyms after a while, and start being just a word.

Although probably more people use "Big Tech" than "FAANG".

Yeah I still just say FAANG. To me it means whatever the big tech companies are with much higher compensation than what I'm getting.

What's another example of an acronym that has stopped being literal? Some acronyms become words but I can't think of any whose letters are no longer accurate.

I guess BRICS:

> In August 2023, at the 15th BRICS Summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been invited to join the bloc. Full membership will take effect on 1 January 2024.

Not exactly the same but UTC is an interesting one, it's an acronym for "coordinated universal time", but is in the wrong order as a compromise to the French that wanted "temps universel coordoné"

3M (originally Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) is now just a name, which means nothing. Same for KFC (once Kentucky Fried Chicken). It may be more common in company names or other legally-fraught acronyms.

Similarly the Big Ten football conference is now 14 teams.

At one point the big ten had 12 teams and the big 12 had ten teams...

Netflix was never a significant company and was only added to make the acronym sound scary. It's funny that NVidia became significant, so that the acronym would make sense now were it for the renamings you pointed out.

In general, acronyms are always pointless shibboleths. "Big Tech" is perfectly fine.

I've been hearing a lot about the "Magnificent Seven" (Apple , Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Amazon). Between now, and when we were talking about FAANG, I did hear some talk about FANMAG to throw Microsoft into the mix.

Of course it'll keep changing with time. We haven't talked much about the Nifty Fifty in awhile, except as a modern day tale of Icarus.

I have been using GAMMA, for Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon.

"Gamma" as a word is sciencey, which I like, and swapping out Netflix for Microsoft seems reasonable to me.

Gamma is prone to causing confusion, because Gamma is one of the metrics used to measure options (basically, it's the rate of acceleration of change in a price of an option relative to the change in price in the underlying security).

FANG+ https://www.ice.com/fangplus

facegoomicrappama. See this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tQzCqkIQ60

It was MAGA originally: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon!

Well, MANAMA is the capital of Bahrain.

So maybe MANNAMA ?

It leaves out Oracle too so and an O in there somewhere.

Big techs.

SNAKES

> 1. I don't like the original acronym as it leaves out Microsoft.

Microsoft isn't part of FAANG

That’s exactly what he said

I think the point is they shouldn't qualify. I don't consider MS to be a "FAANG" - I would agree too. Nothing about the company feels like the energy that the other companies bring. They're playing catch-up and while they're huge by market value and impact they're just riding that legacy and to me not really deserving of being part of the "cool kids club" which to me was where FAANG sprung from.

Personally I think Microsoft belonged more than Netflix, because Netflix is tiny by comparison. Same reason Twitter never belonged. But if you leave them both out you can get a good acronym.

M(eta) A(pple) N(vidia) G(oogle) A(mazon) -> MANGA

Yes, it ignores the Google/Alphabet change, but they still seem to be pushing the "Google" brand more than Meta is pushing the "Facebook" brand so I think that's reasonable.

P.S. It also seem rather apropos that they're only one letter away from MAGA.

Microsoft, in a sense, was the FAANG-mother.

Microsoft didn't spawn Apple. They were siblings, sometimes cooperating and sometimes fierce rivals. Microsoft also bailed out Apple so that it could exist to this day.

Microsoft was the big software giant (well, IBM, but . . .) when Facebook and Netflix and Google got their starts, so ex-'softies likely had an influence on culture and practices in those companies. Amazon is also Seattle-land headquartered and I know there was cross-pollination there.

Even if you think Microsoft is totally crap and not a FAANG, there was some fecal transplant going on with the FAANGs.

You associate faang with energy and cool kids?

That is very strange and curious to me.

MS is absolutely faang.

> while they're huge by market value and impact they're just riding that legacy

The market value they gained is quite recent, so it's not legacy.

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