Google Alphabet Becomes World's Most Valuable Company
Google Alphabet has overtaken Apple as the world's most valuable company. Google's new mother company has a value of $548 billion compared to Apple's $534 billion. After Alphabet announced new record profits its share prices went up.
Google Alphabet was founded in August of last year in attempt to combine all of Google's activities in one single company. The company, which started out with its internet search engine, has bought other companies over the years, including YouTube, Waze, a GPS-based navigation app and Motorola. It has swept the smartphone market with its Android operating system.
Alphabet also is investing in new technologies, for example self-driving cars and high-speed internet networks. Although these companies are not making any money at the moment,they are hopeful long-term projects.
Google's biggest competitor, Apple, is still very successful. It became the world's most valuable company in 2012 when it overtook Exxon Mobil, a petroleum giant. However, recently, the demand for iPhones has gone down and the company's share prices are down 30% from their highest mark.
While Apple relies mostly on its mobile phones to generate money, Google makes most of its profits from advertising. An increasing amount is coming from mobile ads, advertisements on YouTube and Google's Play Store. Income from the company's main business has grown by over 20%.
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Words
- activities = here: everything a company does to earn money
- advertising = to tell users about different products and try to get them to buy things
- although = while
- announce = to say officially
- attempt = try
- billion = a thousand million
- combine = put together
- compared to = to look at two or more things and see how they are different
- competitor = here: company that is in the same business
- demand = the need for products
- found - founded = start, create
- generate = make, produce
- high-speed = very fast
- however = but
- including = also
- income = money you get by selling products and services
- increase = go up
- long-term = something that continues for a long time into the future
- main = most important
- mark = level
- mobile ads = ads you get on your mobile phone
- network = system
- operating system = system in a computer or smart phone that helps all the programs or apps work together
- overtake = here: to become bigger
- petroleum = oil
- profit = money that you make in business
- recently = a short time ago
- rely = need, depend on
- search engine = computer program that helps you find information on the internet
- share prices = what a part of a company is worth
- sweep - swept = to spread in an impressive way
- technology = new machines and ways of doing things that are based on computers and modern science
- valuable = worth a lot of money
- value = what something is worth