- Google reorganized to become Alphabet three years ago, but the way the company is structured is still rather confusing.
- Alphabet is organized in two parts: Google and “Other Bets,” which each house the various other parts of the company’s business.
- Here’s a breakdown of all the divisions under Alphabet.
It’s been three years since Google blew up its entire corporate structure to form a new parent company: Alphabet.
The shake-up was intended to help all of its businesses operate more efficiently, a move CEO Larry Page was working on for years as a secret project he called “Javelin.”
This move also allowed Page to step back from day-to-day operations to “focus on the bigger picture.”
Now, Alphabet is a massive corporation that encompasses everything from internet-beaming hot air balloons to self-driving cars to Google Cloud.
Here are all the companies and divisions within Google’s parent company, Alphabet:
Google officially became Alphabet in October 2015, with the hope of allowing business units to operate independently and move faster. Google cofounder Larry Page is the CEO of the umbrella company, Alphabet.
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Alphabet is divided into two main units: Google and Other Bets. Other Bets is best known for its “moonshot” R&D unit, X, but it also houses several other companies. Let’s start with the smaller companies under Other Bets.
Alphabet’s Access division includes Google Fiber, which launched in Kansas City in 2012 and expanded to about 18 cities. Fiber offers extremely fast high-speed internet, TV, and phone service. It’s billed as an alternative to traditional cable companies.
Source: Business Insider
But Alphabet has scaled back its bet on Fiber, halting expansion to new markets and eliminating hundreds of jobs. According to reports, it’s due to “decreased interest from the founders.”
Source: Business Insider, CNBC
Verily focuses on healthcare and disease prevention research. One of its first projects was smart contact lenses that can monitor a wearer’s glucose levels, which has since been put on hold. Now, it’s focused on eliminating mosquitoes.
Sidewalk Labs is an Alphabet company founded in 2015 to focus on urban innovation. Led by Dan Doctoroff, Sidewalk Labs aims to find new ways to improve cities through technology. The company is located in New York City’s Hudson Yards redevelopment.
Source: Business Insider, Hudson Yards
Calico launched in 2013 with an ambitious goal: “cure death.” The Alphabet-owned company has invested millions to develop drugs that could help prolong human life by fighting age-related diseases like cancer or Alzheimer’s.
Source: Business Insider
GV is Alphabet’s early-stage venture arm. Formerly known as Google Ventures, GV has $2.4 billion under management and has invested in more than 300 companies, including Uber, Flatiron Health, and Slack.
Source: Business Insider
Google Capital — now known as CapitalG — is Alphabet’s growth equity investment fund. Its mission is purely financial returns, but unlike GV, CapitalG focuses on later-stage startups. Some of its investments include Airbnb, Glassdoor, and Thumbtack.
Source: Business Insider
The “think tank” division within Alphabet was spun off into a company called Jigsaw early in 2016. Led by Jared Cohen, Jigsaw uses technology to try to tackle geopolitical problems like online censorship, extremism, and harassment.
Source: Business Insider
Google DeepMind focuses on artificial intelligence research. Acquired in 2014 for $500 million, DeepMind has focused on adding artificial intelligence throughout Google products, including search. The DeepMind AI can also teach itself how to play arcade games and can play board games against humans.
Source: Business Insider
Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving car project, has labored for nearly a decade to develop fully autonomous vehicles. While it began as a part of Google X, the self-driving car unit spun out into its own business in December 2016. Waymo is now focused on building self-driving technology, but not the cars themselves.
X is a secretive R&D lab, nicknamed Alphabet’s moonshot factory. It’s led by Astro Teller.
Project Loon, a former X “moonshot” that is now an independent business, has a mission to bring web access to two-thirds of the world’s population using internet-beaming hot air balloons.
Source: Business Insider, Business Insider
Project Wing is also a former project inside X. The commercial drone delivery service made headlines in September 2016 when it flew Chipotle burritos to Virginia Tech students. Wing has had trouble though, such as accusations of harsh working conditions. The project’s leader, Dave Vos, left the company in October 2016.
Read more: The alarming inside story of a failed Google acquisition, and an employee who was hospitalized
Source: Business Insider, Business Insider
Chronicle is another former X project that’s now a standalone Alphabet business. Its mission is to help companies prevent or stop cyber attacks.
Source: Chronicle
Titan Aerospace was acquired by Google in 2014 and renamed Project Titan as part of X. Project Titan was charged with building solar-powered drones designed to fly nonstop for years and beam internet around the world. But the project was shuttered altogether in late 2016 with the remnants of it lumped in with Project Wing.
Source: Business Insider, Business Insider, 9to5Google
Up next: Google itself.
All of Alphabet’s “traditional” products — like Chrome, the new Pixel phone, Google Home, and Google Play — are still housed under Google, which is run by CEO Sundar Pichai.
Nest Labs built smart thermostats and other home devices, like outdoor security cameras. The company was acquired by what is now Alphabet in 2014, and in June 2016, CEO Tony Fadell stepped down (but remains within Alphabet). He was replaced by Marwan Fawaz. In February, it was announced Nest would be folded back into Google’s hardware unit.
Source: Business Insider
Google’s hardware division was formed in 2016 when Google hired former Motorola president Rick Osterloh. Osterloh was put in charge of Pixel phones, Google Home, Chromebooks, and revamping Google Glass. Osterloh reports directly to Sundar Pichai.
Source: Business Insider
ATAP, which stands for Advanced Technology and Projects, is a secretive Google division that works on projects like Jacquard, which makes smart fabric; Soli, which uses radar for touchless gesture control; and Spotlight Stories, which creates short VR films. ATAP now falls under Osterloh’s hardware division.
Source: Business Insider
Google Cloud is Google’s cloud-computing platform that competes with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The division is a major source of investment for Google right now. It has been run by Diane Greene since 2015, but Google announced in November that she would be stepping down in 2019. Former Oracle exec Thomas Kurian will replace her.
Source: Business Insider, Business Insider
Google Cloud houses G Suite, which includes Hangouts Meet, Calendar, Mail, Plus, Cloud Search, and Drive. According to Google, millions of businesses are now using the service.
Source: Google
YouTube was acquired in 2006 and remains a subsidiary of Google. The video hosting site, run by Susan Wojcicki, has emerged as the world’s No. 1 video-sharing site and the No. 2 most-visited site on the web. Analysts estimate that YouTube generates enormous revenue, but Alphabet has yet to reveal the service’s financial performance.
Source: CNBC
Google’s core product, web search, remains under the Google umbrella.
Google Maps is part of Google’s core business and by 2016, had more than 1 billion monthly users.
Source: Business Insider
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