Poll: Which FAANG is the most likely to decline in the years ahead?

Netflix is the only one I consider "innocent" however their market segment as a whole deserves a kicking for pushing us back towards the cable TV model.

I have historically been very anti Apple but the M1 is impressive, as is their attitude to privacy. Not such a good look on the working culture front though.

Google and Amazon are both toxic to some extent, while being so good as to be indispensable to a majority of their customers. For Google that is B2C, for Amazon (and Microsoft, who deserve inclusion here), that is B2B. On balance I expect stasis for all 3.

Having Facebook decline all the way out of existence would give me hope for humanity, but I don't see it happening.

Google can take a lot of criticism for being relatively complacent and without much visible innovation lately, but they'll coast on Google Workspaces (G Suite), search/advertising, and their OS marketshare just like Microsoft did for decades. They have ample time to make and correct mistakes. I've also noticed that whatever products their intense focus is on often see rapid, high quality improvements (like when Google Meet development accelerated after the pandemic started).

Facebook could go either way. It owns Instagram, of course, and I think they know the social media business well. WhatsApp will never go anywhere, it's entrenched. They're big enough to copy novel new social media ideas quickly. A highlight is that they truly are a leader in VR, and the Oculus Quest is clearly a hit in that category. If VR and AR truly become big businesses (skeptical on that but we'll see), Facebook will be growing.

I can't see Amazon declining due to their dominance as a logistics company for everything. They can become truly awful any everyone will just keep using Amazon.com and AWS.

I don't know if this is a bold prediction, a safe prediction, or just one that will get me accused of being a fanboy, but in this list think Apple is the least likely player to decline in the years ahead. They have shown time and time again that they have good management in place that has a long-term vision in mind. A lot of people say that Steve Jobs was the greatest and Apple isn't the same anymore, but they've taken advantage of every possible high margin business with their newest products in the post-Steve Jobs era. Apple Watch with its accessory ecosystem (like $400 Hermes watch bands), headphones and audio, and all the subscription services.

That would in turn alleviate a lot of the governmental attacks and bad press. I can't think of anyone who hates Amazon the service - they hate Amazon the pee-bottle-broker and tornado-warning-ignorer.

As for other e-commerce sites, they'll probably just buy them, crush them, or if they can't do that - sell them logistics and infrastructure services.

[edit] Consider FedEx vs UPS. FedEx can't hire staffers right now, while UPS, unionized, saw basically zero attrition. FedEx is suffering right now. UPS, crushing it. [1]

  The massive labor shortage that’s rocked the U.S. since the pandemic and disrupted long-established employment relationships hasn’t had much impact on UPS, which pays its unionized drivers the highest wages in the industry. That’s helped it maintain a stable workforce and rising profits throughout the current disruptions. Meanwhile, lower-paying, nonunionized FedEx racked up $450 million in extra costs because of labor shortages. And while UPS easily beat earnings expectations and predicted a rising profit margin in the U.S. for the fourth quarter, FedEx signaled that its profit margin will fall further.