The art of reinvention- a quick look at the FAANGs (part 1)

When asked what is most difficult for a corporation between obtaining #competitiveadvantage or sustaining it, the typical answer is that obtaining a competitive advantage is the most difficult of both firm objectives.

The answer is right (only a few percents do really get a competitive advantage), but for those obtaining this advantage, the challenge of #lasting is as complex as the energy they have deployed to become a powerful brand name.

Multiple reasons prevail , competition reboot, new disruptions, but a large cause is internal: #organizations tend to loose fit with size, bureaucracy takes over agility, and users can develop brand fatigue.

Even the best brands can “peak”. An example? Look at the #FAANGs. They got huge momentum in the last decade, but are they able to sustain? We compile a measure of their attractiveness based on a mix of their web brand search and social media valence for the last 20 years. The intensity is between 0 to 100, where 100 is the best momentum.:

year 2004 2009 2014 2019 2022-now

Facebook 0 52 74 20 16 Apple 32 35 50 48 46 Amazon 16 36 64 62 66 Netflix 2 10 48 55 57 Google 15 49 94 75 61

Clearly, all FAANGS have had better pull. Most notably #facebook peaked in Dec 2012, Google one year later, while Amazon managed to keep momentum from 2012 to 2015. Facebook decline since Dec 12 is rather staggerin. It is now at the point of traction it got by June 2008, at the time it was just a break point to exponentially develop. Hopefully, #Instragam is quickly building pull, (but Whats App is correcting after the pandemic). In contrast, check #tiktok momentum. By 2019, it was just exhibiting same appeal as Facebook, before the later’s breakout. Tikto got into the same wave pattern since then, with brand appeal 10 fold higher than three years.

Amazon, Apple and Netflix have been roughly stable in recent 5 years (and with a peak during Covid, that disappeared last year, ahead of stock market realization that this was not to be sustained). Among those three Amazon continues to grow slowly but surely as is Netflix.

Apple brand remains strong, but is subtly retracing, which clearly anticipates the need for new product fit. #google has lost one third of its appeal in the last ten years, and thus also must be thinking about how to last stronger. Maybe one reason code Red has been activated after the vast momentum of ChatGPT?