Alphabet owns the Google search engine and became one of the world’s most valuable companies after creating the Alphabet structure.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced Alphabet in 2015 as a new parent company. Google became a subsidiary, while businesses and projects outside Google’s core internet products were placed under separate Alphabet units. Page became Alphabet’s chief executive and Brin became its president at the restructuring.
Google remains Alphabet’s best-known business. Its major activities include search, online advertising, YouTube, Android, cloud computing, and hardware. Alphabet’s market capitalization therefore reflects the performance and expectations of a large group rather than only the Google search page.
A common mistake is to call Alphabet simply “Google.” Google is the principal subsidiary and consumer brand, while Alphabet Inc. is the publicly traded parent company. Alphabet shares trade on Nasdaq under the symbols GOOGL and GOOG, representing different voting arrangements.