Alphabet is the parent company of Google and became a holding company in 2015.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced the creation of Alphabet in August 2015. The new structure separated Google’s core internet products from several other ventures, allowing different businesses to operate with clearer management and financial reporting.
Google remained Alphabet’s largest subsidiary and continued to include Search, YouTube, Android, and Google Cloud. Other Alphabet businesses have included research and development projects such as Waymo and Verily, although the group’s portfolio has changed over time.
The name Alphabet is sometimes incorrectly used as though it replaced the Google brand everywhere. Consumers still use Google Search and Google products; Alphabet is the corporate parent and public company. The restructuring helped investors distinguish Google’s advertising engine from the parent company’s longer-term experimental projects.