Ask HN: Meta Question Does FAANG Become Maang or Manga? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Meta Question Does FAANG Become Maang or Manga?

46 pointskbendyk77 comments

Any other ideas on the new name?

My favorite take: https://twitter.com/jspaleta/status/1453798341347708930

"I work for the MAAAN"

GO-MAAAN!

MAGMA (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon).

I've never understood why Netflix was equated with the bigger companies. It's market cap is $300B the others (excluding Facebook) are all above $1T, and Facebook/Meta has a chance of breaking the $1T in the next year.

Mostly because of their compensation I think.

Why is Facebook "meta" but Google isn't "Alphabet"?

Google is still a separate company, owned by Alphabet, the holding company. Facebook is changing their name entirely as a company. Facebook will only exist as a product that Meta owns after this.

They're both awful attempts at rebranding, it's true.

Welcome to the opinion zone.

You mention market caps, but I don't think that is really the reason why certain companies enter the mindshare of people.

I think the reason that Netflix became a part of the acronym is because, like its counterparts, all of them are leaders in a big space that others have a hard time competing with, with products that seem innovative (also explains why the giants of FinTech don't have much mindshare). This kind of industry leader at enormous scale results in high compensation for individual emoloyees and it becomes convenient to lump these companies together because everyone is going for it regardless of whether they care about any individual workplace.

Netflix essentially bootstrapped and proved the market for streaming. For a really long time, people weren't sold by the idea of streaming their shows instead of getting millions of commercials on cable TV.

Don't get me wrong, Microsoft is a great company that operates at a massive scale, winning many enterprise hearts like Microsoft Office (slowly losing relevance), but if I think about it harder, I just don't think there's much for Microsoft to claim as a leader.

It has the largest gaming and PC markets, but those markets don't have the same nearly infinitely scalable potential profit that Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, or Google do. They don't quite lead hardware, software, or "platforms". Windows is pretty good, but really more just a data platform at this point and hasn't done much movement compared to macOS. Azure, GitHub, LinkedIn—they exist, for sure, but we tend to talk about them as separate entities than "Microsoff" a lot of the time.

I'm sure many people can raise counterpoints, but keep in mind we're already talking about ambiguous notions of "feeling" how a company should be perceived, and why many people would "feel" like Microsoft doesn't lump with the rest.

I'm reminded by a quote by Steve Jobs talking about Microsoft's "lack of culture" in the products.

https://youtu.be/KSg3fU9XWow

Honestly I always assumed Netflix was added because "fang" sounds nice and apropos, but if you remove the N then it's a very different word that's not nice at all.

But there's a million acronyms that could be made by popping some good tech companies in and pushing out less nice-looking initials out. Why did FAANG catch on and not GAMMA, SLAAP, STINT, etc.?

I think it's partially your reason, partially something else.

FANG was created by the stocks analyst guys, i.e Jim Cramer, to reflect high growth tech stocks. Apple wasn't even in it originally and got added later and became FAANG. So it has almost nothing to with your reasons. Check Microsoft's growth since 2017 and its on par with or exceeds others.

Are the only people who perpetuated the acronym stocks people? I'd like to know what other acronyms competed then, if they existed

I think I remember a few of them:

    PIGOU
    Paypal Intel Google Oracle Uber
    
    SUP
    Square Uber Paypal
    
    PAIN
    Palantir AirBnB IBM Nvidia
    
    SAURON
    Square Apple Uber Roku Oracle Netflix
    
    FAM
    Facebook Apple Microsoft

Microsoft isn't in Silicon Valley - they're in Seattle

As is Amazon

Kick out Netflix. MAGA

Tell your Silicon Valley friends that you work at MAGA

Netflix, they don't hire the best people, we've got the best people, believe me

GAMMA—kick out Netflix and put in Microsoft

The M is already Microsoft. I'm partial to calling the Netflix-less tech industry "MAGA", because they're the ones actually making America great again.

Also Google is actually Alphabet, so it'd really be like MAMA or something.

The M is Meta - Microsoft isn't in FAANG

Tangential: why not? Microsoft is a huge, enormously influential tech company that everyone has heard of, with a revenue of $160 billion (more than 10x that of Netflix) and nearly 200,000 employees (more than any FAANG except Amazon, if Wikipedia is to be believed.) Why isn't it included in the standard list of prominent tech companies?

Due to the history of the term (originating in financial markets) Microsoft was considered to be in decline/not appreciating in value as quickly as FAANG and was thus excluded. I would say these days it belongs there much more than say NFLX especially considering NFLX having nestled into a content creation/media company rather than a primarily tech play that was purchasing content.

I feel like the last bit isn't exactly right. Their compensation is still more competitive compared to Microsoft. On the tech side, they are also innovating as a breakout new producer compared to the incumbents.

The term was coined by Jim Cramer who really doesn’t care about compensation or tech innovation

Note also that the original FANGs (minus Amazon and Microsoft) are all Silicon Valley companies. Particularly when talking about local Silicon Valley issues (employment or housing or recruitment or whatever), it still sometimes makes sense to speak of them without adding in Microsoft and Amazon.

In purely financial/economic terms I'm still partial to MAGA, because Facebook and Netflix are a tier below in revenue, market cap, and diversity of their product portfolio.

The M in FAANG is already Microsoft?

Mhmm theres a combination that makes MEGAMAN

I say shuffle companies around until it’s BANANA

Brb - starting a company whose name begins with "B"

[B]oogle

It reminds me

https://github.com/p8952/bocker

MichaelSoft Binbows [google images]

Naw, I doubt "meta" will take off in the public consciousness. "Facebook" is already too well known.

You’re absolutely right, as myowz pointed out, it was ignored with G/Alphabet, but it would funnily confusing to say “He works for a MANGA (or MAAAN) company” to someone…

Google did not rebrand itself though, it's still Google. It's the holding company that owns Google (the company) that's called Alphabet. In contrast, Facebook does an actual name change now - there'll be no company named Facebook anymore, just a product.

it will. they're even changing their ticker from FB

Anybody else think this renaming will go down in history as right up there with "Inprise"[1]?

[1]: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2589416/inprise-to-cha...

Man!

I had forgotten about the Borland/Inprise/Borland lunacy

Yeah, that was definitely one of the worst re-branding debacles in IT history as far as I can tell.

The FB / Meta thing may be a bit different, but it definitely doesn't jump out to me as "Wow, what a Good Idea!" ya know?

Google's [quasi] rebranding to hide what each business unit was doing by becoming subsidiaries of Alphabet is still one of those weird things

Or GNAAM, pronounced like 'nam, the way some Americans refer to the Vietnam war.

If G -> A (for Alphabet), then it's NAAAM

Or MAAAN, which has more of a ring to it.

Yes, GNAAM. It’s just more memorable and fun.

On a serious note, the G in FAANG is for Alphabet.

MAAMAN

- Microsoft Amazon Alphabet Meta Apple Netflix

NAA(H)MAN

Microsoft Alphabet Meta Match Oracle Netflix?

MAANGO

Oracle is still in business?

In Japan we say "GAFA" - Google Amazon Facebook Apple.

Same in France

Replace Netflix with Microsoft then you either have:

   GAMMA or MAGMA

Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon.

Meta, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon.

Both seem to work. But I'd go with GAMMA.

G already became alphabet, no one cared right?

G identifies as alphabet, but masses keep deadnaming it. And if corporations are people, G should be able to sue and cancel people (all of them).

G is not alphabet. Alphabet is a holding company, of which G is a 'bet'

I have no idea why FAANG is still a thing. Of the trillion dollars companies, Meta/FB is no longer one of them. Netflix no idea how they even got part of the league.

Should be ATAMA - Apple, Tesla, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet.

But really, it will be BTS - Bitcoin, Tesla and SpaceX. The $10T club.

Netflix has a reputation for providing high up front compensation packages instead of equity and other compensation models. For this reason it gets lumped into the larger technology companies with vastly higher head counts. FANNG is largely a descriptor of compensation levels.

I've always thought that comp at Microsoft is similar to Amazon (i.e. slightly lower than F/Apple/N/G). Am I wrong?

Amazon pays more since AWS got popular.

I figured it was something like Facebook|Netflix > Google > Amazon > Microsoft. With them all being in an A- tier of compensation. (Most companies are C - B, A is extremely rare).

Is Bitcoin hiring?

yeah for their ailing HR Dept

Or just ignore the name change like people did with the Sears tower or miller park

Or DCA airport, maybe "National" if you insist.

Or perhaps more close to home here: Alphabet.

DCA and National are more-or-less interchangable. It's Reagan that's the own-of-towner one.

yeah dont know what my unenthusiastic non-national stance was. agreed. thanks. this is accurate & correct.

I'm reporting you for false info. The Sears tower's name never changed.

Some people started early on this one in the post with the name change announcement

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29029385

Kind of a silly question when we're not saying FAANA rather than FAANG.

MAMATA - These Represent the 6 Largest Companies in the S&P 500 By Market Cap

Microsoft - Technology Sector

Apple - Technology Sector

Meta - Communication Services Sector

Alphabet - Communication Services Sector

Tesla - Consumer Cyclical Sector

Amazon - Consumer Cyclical Sector

If we go with MAANG, can I pronounce it like "mange"?

Lets all settle on MAMAA

M - Microsoft ( Technology Sector )

A - Apple ( Technology Sector )

M - Meta ( Communication Services Sector )

A - Alphabet ( Communication Services Sector )

A - Amazon ( Consumer Cyclical Sector )

An ESL speaker once used "FAGMAN".

We chuckled.

Excellent boondock saints reference

"I mean the fat man"

Why can’t it be MAGAN? Pronounce it as like the name “Megan” and maybe we can get more girls into stem?

The only way to find out is to consult the world wide WEEB

In that case Google would be replaced by Alphabet no?

MMAGA. Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com