Alphabet owns Google and became one of the world’s largest companies through online advertising.
Alphabet Inc. was created in 2015 as a corporate restructuring of Google. Google became a subsidiary, while Alphabet served as the parent company for Google and several other ventures. The restructuring separated Google’s core internet products from experimental or specialized projects.
Google’s advertising business remains central to Alphabet’s financial importance. Search advertising, video advertising through YouTube, and advertising across partner websites generate substantial revenue. Alphabet also operates major products such as Android, Google Maps, Google Cloud, and Gmail.
A frequent mix-up is answering “Google” when a question asks for the publicly traded parent company. Google is the best-known operating subsidiary, but Alphabet is the corporation whose shares are traded under the ticker symbols GOOGL and GOOG. Market-cap rankings therefore generally identify Alphabet as the listed company.