Alphabet, Google’s parent company, made a year-end profit of the fourth quarter of 2015, reaching $4.9 billion. With this announcement, its share price went up to 9% in after-hours trading, making the company worth around $568 billion, surpassing Apple with its $535 billion value.
“Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising, all areas in which we’ve been investing for many years,” said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet.
It is the first time that Alphabet has separated out the results of its Google business, including the search engine and YouTube, from its “Other Bets” business, which includes such experimental ventures as the internet balloon programs and self-driving cars. Alphabet made $16.3 billion on an annual basis, but the figures revealed that their “Other Bets” business had a loss of around $3.6 billion during the period. Meanwhile Google’s operating income had risen to $23.4bn, as online advertising increased.
