Google 2015 Annual Report Download - page 6

Table of Contents Alphabet Inc. and Google Inc.
2
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Overview
As our founders Larry and Sergey wrote in the original founders letter, "Google is not a conventional company.
We do not intend to become one." As part of that, they also explained that you could expect us to make "smaller bets
in areas that might seem very speculative or even strange when compared to our current businesses." From the start,
the company has always strived to do more, and to do important and meaningful things with the resources we have.
To help accelerate this, we announced plans in August 2015 to create a new public holding company, called
Alphabet. Alphabet is a collection of businesses -- the largest of which, of course, is Google. It also includes businesses
that we combine as Other Bets and generally are pretty far afield of our main Internet products such as Verily, Calico,
X, Nest, GV, Google Capital and Access/Google Fiber. Our Alphabet structure is about helping businesses within
Alphabet prosper through strong leaders and independence.
At Google, our innovations in search and advertising have made our website widely used and our brand one of
the most recognized in the world. We generate revenues primarily by delivering online advertising that consumers find
relevant and that advertisers find cost-effective. Google's core products such as Search, Android, Maps, Chrome,
YouTube, Google Play and Gmail each have over one billion monthly active users. And we believe we are just beginning
to scratch the surface. Google's vision is to remain a place of incredible creativity and innovation that uses our technical
expertise to tackle big problems. Our Other Bets are also making important strides in their industries, and our goal is
for them to become thriving, successful businesses in the long term.
Serving Our Users
In many ways Google search -- and the clean white page with the blinking cursor -- is a metaphor for how we
think about innovation. Imagining the ways things could be -- without constraint -- is the process we use to look for
better answers to some of life's everyday problems. It's about starting with the "What if?" and then working relentlessly
to see if we can find the answer.
It's been that way from the beginning; providing ways to access knowledge and information has been core to
Google and our products have come a long way in the last decade. We used to show just ten blue links in our results.
You had to click through to different websites to get your answers, which took time. Now we are increasingly able to
provide direct answers -- even if you're speaking your question using Voice Search -- which makes it quicker, easier
and more natural to find what you're looking for.
Over time, we have added other services that let you access information quickly and easily. What if we could
develop a smarter email service with plenty of storage? That's Gmail. What if we could make a simpler, speedier, safer
browser? That's Chrome. What if we could provide easy access to movies, books, music and apps, no matter which
device you're on? That's Google Play. What if developers could use Google's infrastructure to easily build and scale
applications? And what if people could collaborate and get work done from anywhere on any device? That's cloud and
apps.
As devices proliferate, it's more and more important to ensure that you can navigate effortlessly across them --
that the technology gets out of the way, so you can move through this multi-screen world as easily as possible. It's
why we're investing so much in platforms like our Chrome browser, Chrome OS and our Android mobile operating
system. Ultimately, we want you to have speedy, secure access to whatever you need, wherever you happen to be,
and on whatever device you may be using at the time.
Ads as Answers
We asked, what if ads weren't intrusive and annoying? What if we could deliver a relevant ad at just the right time
and give people useful commercial information? What if we could provide products that allow for better attribution and
measurement across screens so that we show great ads for the right people?
Our advertising solutions help millions of companies grow their businesses, and we offer a wide range of products
across screens and devices. We generate revenues primarily by delivering both performance advertising and brand
advertising.
• Performance advertising creates and delivers relevant ads that users will click, leading to direct engagement
with advertisers. Most of our performance advertisers pay us when a user engages in their ads. Performance
advertising lets our advertisers connect with users while driving measurable results.