Alphabet, Google‘s parent company, has dethroned Apple as the world’s most valuable company after a blockbuster quarter fueled by the growth of its digital advertising business.
In its first earnings report since spinning off Google’s businesses and creating the new parent company Alphabet, the company announced a $4.9 billion profit — up from $4.7 billion at the same time a year ago. The news sent Alphabet’s stock price surging, giving the company a rough worth of $570 billion versus Apple, which is worth around $535 billion.
Apple announced a record quarter last week. However, the company faces a tough road in 2016 as smartphone sales are starting to stagnate. Meanwhile, Google’s advertising business is still the engine that is driving the company forward. Paid clicks on advertisements have grown 31 percent year over year, according to the report, with much of the growth coming from mobile.
Apple occupied the top spot for four years, having taken over at number one from Exxon, which itself supplanted Microsoft. At one point in 2015 Apple was worth $760bn but its value has fallen away alarmingly as sales of the new iPhone, bad publicity and the loss of Steve Jobs all affected shareholder confidence. Apple and Google were even partners in business for a long time – until Google developed its own android phones and there was a very messy parting of the ways.
