Alphabet is the company that uses the stock ticker GOOGL and ranks among the world’s most valuable companies by market capitalization.
Alphabet was created in 2015 as the parent company of Google and several other businesses. Its Class A shares trade under GOOGL, while its Class C shares trade under GOOG. This dual-ticker structure reflects different voting rights attached to the share classes.
Google remains Alphabet’s best-known business, with search, advertising, YouTube, Android, and cloud services forming major parts of the group. Alphabet also reports activities outside Google through its “Other Bets” category.
A common mistake is treating Google and Alphabet as identical corporate names. Google is the principal operating business, while Alphabet is the publicly traded holding company whose market capitalization encompasses the group.