FAANG stands for Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet), five of the largest U.S. tech companies. CNBC’s Jim Cramer coined the term in 2013, and in 2021, after Facebook became Meta, he proposed MAMAA, which swaps Netflix for Microsoft. The five run very different business models: advertising, devices, commerce and cloud, and subscriptions.
Drawing by The Business Engineer.
How each one makes money
01
Meta: advertising
Meta's revenue was $201.0 billion in 2025, of which $196.2 billion came from advertising across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Reality Labs, its headset and glasses unit, brought in $2.2 billion.
02
Alphabet: search, YouTube and cloud
Alphabet's revenues were $402.8 billion in 2025. Google advertising contributed $294.7 billion, and Google Cloud grew to $58.7 billion from $43.2 billion.
03
Amazon: stores, sellers, ads and AWS
Amazon's net sales were $716.9 billion in 2025. Online stores brought in $269.3 billion, third-party seller services $172.2 billion, AWS $128.7 billion and advertising $68.6 billion.
04
Apple and Netflix: devices and memberships
Apple's net sales were $478.8 billion in fiscal 2026 (to 26 September 2026), with iPhone at $254.1 billion and services at $123.3 billion. Netflix's revenues were $45.2 billion in 2025, all of it from streaming.
Where you see it today
From FAANG to the AI build-out
The group now competes on AI infrastructure. In 2025 Alphabet’s capital expenditures were $91.4 billion and Meta’s $72.2 billion including finance leases. Amazon’s cash capital expenditures were $128.3 billion, mainly technology infrastructure, the majority of it for AWS.
Meta's superintelligence bet
Meta’s 10-K says it is investing in AI to deliver ‘personal superintelligence for everyone’. Its family of apps funds that bet: Reality Labs posted an operating loss of $19.2 billion in 2025.
Amazon’s free cash flow fell to $11.2 billion in 2025 from $38.2 billion in 2024, as spending on property and equipment rose. AI infrastructure is turning a cash machine into a capital-heavy one.
The acronym keeps changing
When Facebook renamed itself Meta in October 2021, Cramer swapped FAANG for MAMAA, dropping Netflix and adding Microsoft. The labels follow market value, not business models.
FAANG in sourced numbers
Meta
Revenue$201.0 billion
Main engine (period)Advertising, $196.2 billion (2025)
Apple
Revenue$478.8 billion
Main engine (period)iPhone, $254.1 billion (fiscal 2026)
Amazon
Revenue$716.9 billion
Main engine (period)Online stores, $269.3 billion; AWS $128.7 billion (2025)
Netflix
Revenue$45.2 billion
Main engine (period)Streaming memberships (2025)
Alphabet
Revenue$402.8 billion
Main engine (period)Google advertising, $294.7 billion (2025)
What it means for you
Do not treat FAANG as one business; compare each company with peers that share its model.
If you sell through these platforms, know which one taxes you: ad auctions, app-store fees or seller fees.
Investors: track capital expenditure against operating cash flow, now the key ratio in the AI build-out.
Builders: the ad-funded platforms pay for AI with ad profits; the subscription and device models pay differently.
Read the 10-K segment tables, not the acronym, before drawing conclusions.
The Business Engineer lens
FAANG was a market label for winners of the mobile and cloud era; the AI era is re-sorting them by who can fund and fill the data centres. The Business Engineer reads capex against cash flow as the real dividing line, not the letters in the acronym.
FAANG is an acronym that comprises the hottest tech companies’ stocks in 2019. Those are Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Alphabet’s Google. The term was coined by Jim Cramer, former hedge fund manager and host of CNBC’s Mad Money and founder of the publication TheStreet.
What’s interesting about the FAANG is how those companies together form more of an ecosystem of how people consume content, purchase things, and find information on the web. Thus, it is worth giving a look under the hood of the companies that comprise the FAANG ecosystem.
The FAANG ecosystem
When we speak about tech, in the last decades we often refer to the IT space. With the rise of the web, a new wave of tech companies has taken over the business world. Those tech companies have the ability to influence the way people behave, consume content and purchase things.
Those tech companies are considered “hot” often make the news. There are a few aspects of why those companies manage to capture so much attention:
In some ways, some of the FAANG companies (think of Facebook, Google, and Netflix) do make money by capturing the attention of as many people as possible (so-called attention merchant).
They’ve been able to become multi-billion businesses in a relatively short span of time.
They’ve changed the way we thought about ourselves (think of Facebook convincing us that personal branding is an end in itself).
They’ve changed the way we think about our societies (think of the Netflix series have the ability to form cults).
They’ve changed the way we think about entrepreneurship (Steve Jobs’ “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” has become a mantra among millions of entrepreneurs and aspiring businessmen).
FAANG businesses dissected
FAANG companies have been able to become multi-billion dollar businesses relatively quickly. For instance, in 2017 Facebook passed the $40 billion revenue mark. While Google passed the $110 billion revenue mark. Apple by far was the tech company with the highest revenue at almost $230 billion.
It is critical to notice that FAANG companies run different business models. And that is also why they carry a different level of profitability. In some cases, lower profitability might be driven by the industry in which one of the FAANG operations but also from strategic choices. For instance, even though Amazon is the one with the highest revenues, right after Apple, it is the company with the lowest net income, after Netflix.
Instead, if we look at Apple, the company has high revenues and high margins. This is in part due to its razor and blade strategy and also thanks to Apple’s to keep high margins on its iPhone and related products.
FAANG business models in a nutshell
The FAANG companies are run primarily via five four main business models:
It is important to notice how most of the FAANG companies have been investing in other areas to diversify their revenue generation.
How do FAANG companies make money?
Beyond Facebook, and Netflix which primarily make money via advertising (the former) and membership fees (the latter), Amazon, Apple, and Google have a more diversified revenue generation.
In 2025 Google advertising brought in $294.7 billion of Alphabet’s $402.8 billion in revenues, yet Google isn’t just about advertising anymore. Even though online stores, is still Amazon’s primary revenue generation stream, there are other segments of the business that are quite interesting and might become massive in the coming decade.
Another interesting aspect of Amazon is its ability to generate revenues via advertising and third-party seller services. In short, the Amazon business model is like an octopus that is able to get in and be successful in many industries with several revenue streams. As Jeff Bezos would put it, it’s all about being in day one.
In this historic period, FAANG companies managed to get most of our attention. There isn’t a single day when one of those companies makes the news. Yet what is hot today might not be so tomorrow. So the question is, would those companies still be so hot in ten, twenty years’ time?
Facebook is an attention-based businessmodel. As such, its algorithms condense the attention of over 2.4 billion users as of June 2019. In 2025, advertising brought in $196.2 billion of Meta’s $201.0 billion in revenue, according to its 10-K. Facebook Inc. has a product portfolio made of Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Oculus.
Amazon has a diversified business model. In 2021 Amazon posted over $469 billion in revenues and over $33 billion in net profits. Online stores contributed to over 47% of Amazon revenues, Third-party Seller Services, Amazon AWS, Subscription Services, Advertising revenues and Physical Stores.
Apple has a business model that is broken down between products and services. Apple generated over $365 billion in revenues in 2021, of which $191.9 came from the iPhone sales, $35.2 came from Mac sales, $38.3 came from accessories and wearables (AirPods, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats products, HomePod, iPod touch, and accessories), $31.86 billion came from iPad sales, and $68.4 billion came from services.
Netflix is a subscription-based businessmodel: members pay for a range of plans, including a lower-priced ad-supported plan, to stream series, movies and shows. Leveraging on a streaming platform, Netflix generated over $29.6 billion in 2021, with an operating income of over $6 billion and a net income of over $5 billion.
Google is a platform, and a tech media company running an attention-based businessmodel. As of 2021, Alphabet’s Google generated over $257 billion in revenues. Over $209 billion (over 81% of the total revenues) came from Google Advertising products (Google Search, YouTube Ads, and Network Members sites). They were followed by over $28 billion in other revenues (comprising Google Play, Pixel phones, and YouTube Premium), and by Google Cloud, which generated over $19 billion in 2021.
Key Takeaways
What’s interesting about the FAANG is how those companies together form more of an ecosystem of how people consume content, purchase things, and find…
When we speak about tech, in the last decades we often refer to the IT space.
FAANG companies have been able to become multi-billion dollar businesses relatively quickly.
Beyond Facebook, and Netflix which primarily make money via advertising (the former) and membership fees (the latter), Amazon, Apple, and Google have…
In this historic period, FAANG companies managed to get most of our attention.
What is FAANG Companies: Inside FAANG Business Models?
FAANG is an acronym that comprises the hottest tech companies’ stocks in 2019. Those are Facebook , Amazon , Apple , Netflix , and Alphabet’s Google . The term was coined by Jim Cramer, former hedge fund manager and host of CNBC’s Mad Money and founder of the publication TheStreet.
Who coined the term FAANG?
What’s interesting about the FAANG is how those companies together form more of an ecosystem of how people consume content, purchase things, and find information on the web. Thus, it is worth giving a look under the hood of the companies that comprise the FAANG ecosystem.
What is the faang ecosystem?
When we speak about tech, in the last decades we often refer to the IT space. With the rise of the web, a new wave of tech companies has taken over the business world . Those tech companies have the ability to influence the way people behave, consume content and purchase things.
What is FAANG businesses dissected?
FAANG companies have been able to become multi-billion dollar businesses relatively quickly. For instance, in 2017 Facebook passed the $40 billion revenue mark. While Google passed the $110 billion revenue mark. Apple by far was the tech company with the highest revenue at almost $230 billion.
How do FAANG companies make money?
Beyond Facebook, and Netflix which primarily make money via advertising (the former) and membership fees (the latter), Amazon, Apple, and Google have a more diversified revenue generation .
What’s so special about that FAANG?
In this historic period, FAANG companies managed to get most of our attention. There isn’t a single day when one of those companies makes the news. Yet what is hot today might not be so tomorrow. So the question is, would those companies still be so hot in ten, twenty years’ time?
What is FAANG In 2020?
How Does Facebook Make Money? Facebook Hidden Revenue Business Model Explained. How Amazon Makes Money: Amazon Business Model in a Nutshell. The Trillion Dollar Company: Apple Business Model In A Nutshell
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
It is critical to notice that FAANG companies run different business models. And that is also why they carry a different level of profitability. In some cases, lower profitability might be driven by the industry in which one of the FAANG operations but also from strategic choices. For instance, even though Amazon is the one with the highest revenues, right after Apple, it is the company with the lowest net income, after Netflix.
