Alphabet reports $74.5 billion total revenue for 2015

Feb 2, 2016 09:27 GMT  ·  By

Alphabet, Google's parent company, became yesterday the most valuable company in the world after Q4 2015 and total 2015 fiscal year results smashed expectations and sky-rocketed Alphabet past Apple's stock.

Alphabet currently has a total market value of $558 billion (€511 billion) while Apple's total value stands second at $535 billion (€490 billion).

This is the first time when Google is the world's most valuable company. Apple previously held that title after it had surpassed Exxon in 2011. Before that, Apple moved past Google to become the most valuable tech company in 2010.

Spectacular 2015 financial results

Alphabet's sudden rise atop the financial world is in large part due to the company's 2015 fiscal year results, which the company released yesterday. After the Q4 2015 and total 2015 financial results were released, Alphabet stock grew 8%.

In 2015, Google reported $74.5 billion (€68.3 billion) in revenues, up 13% to last year. Of these, $21.3 billion (€19.5 billion) were recorded in Q4, of which $4.9 billion (€4.5 billion) was net income alone.

Total operating income for 2015 was $23.4 billion (€21.4 billion), but Alphabet also lost $3.6 billion (€3.3 billion) in moonshot projects like Google Fiber, Nest, Project Loon, Selfdriving Cars, and so on.

Alphabet's Google division brought in most of the revenue

As you'd expect, 99% of Alphabet's revenue came from the Google division, with most of the money coming from the company's ad business, which brought in around $19 billion of the total $21.3 billion revenue recorded in Q4 2015.

Additionally, the company also said it grew its employee base, announcing a headcount of 61,814 employees, up from last year's total of 53,600.

Gmail also surpassed the one billion users milestone, after Google said it hit 900 million total users at Google I/O 2015, at the end of May 2015.

One year ago, Apple had a total market value of $775 billion (€710 billion), when it reached its all-time peak. Since then, the company has been free-falling while Google has been on an ascending path since 2010.