
Ask HN: Why Isn't Microsoft Included in FAANG? - paulddraper
Supposed question, but this acronym appears everywhere on Hacker News?<p>Is FAANG supposed to be big high-tech companies?<p>How did Netflix make the cut but not Microsoft?
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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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renaudg
Other acronyms are in use to refer to tech giants, like GAFAM (which does
include Microsoft but leaves out Netflix)

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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.

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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).

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jaredsohn
Back in the day it was GYM (Google/Yahoo/Microsoft)

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brudgers
Snow White and the seven dwarves.

[https://www.networkworld.com/article/2212166/snow-white-
and-...](https://www.networkworld.com/article/2212166/snow-white-and-the-
seven-dwarfs.html)

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pansa2
Because that would make it harder to pronounce.

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kleer001
FAANG is a handy bacronym used to get the hype up and counter any FUD. In a
word it's non-sense.

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anonsivalley652
FSABHATMAGJJAVA doesn't have a mellifluous ring to it.

