Beyond Search: 6 Google Companies You Didn’t Know Existed

Google is one of the most popular companies in the world, not only in the technology sector. The company’s first product, the search engine, is still the company’s flagship and remains the sole leader in the search engine market.

In addition, the holding has other very popular services: operating system Androidvideo platform YouTubefile storage medium Google Drive And many others.

But the conglomerate also has a number of parallel and lesser-known companies operating under the same umbrella.

What is the Alphabet?

All these products and divisions, from the most famous to the most unknown, are under the control of the same brand: a company called Alphabet, which is almost imperceptible but plays an important role in the conglomerate.

He is administratively responsible for the entire company established in October 2015. Just like Meta is the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsAppFor example. It was created to bring together and organize these subsidiaries that have accumulated over the years. Since they do not all carry the Google name or have a direct relationship with the service, they were placed under the supervision of a company for this purpose.

In this way The name Google becomes just the name of the search engineother companies are free to develop parallel projects more independently.

Examples of other companies owned by Google

Calico

A California Life CompanyIt is called by the abbreviation Calicois a laboratory that develops biotechnology. This company, whose operations are little known, “Extending human life”.

In practice, this means: to study productive diseases and find possible solutionsLike creating drugs or treatments at the genetic level. The company has been in business for 11 years but has yet to deliver a commercial-level product.

2. GFiber

Google also has a Internet provider. Exclusive to the United States, GFiber (previously called Google Fiber) is a residential and commercial operator operating exclusively in the United States.

Founded in 2012, the subsidiary offers fiber optic internet starting at 1 Gbps for $70 per month (R$385 in direct currency conversion) with no additional installation or equipment fees.

3.GV

There is a subsidiary of Alphabet that has an eye on the tech market: venture capitalbuys shares of other companies. His name is GVabbreviation Google Initiatives.

Created in 2009, this program helps startups not only financially, but also by bringing them closer to Google technologies. It has already contributed more than $10 billion in funding through investments in companies such as Uber, Slack and Nest, which became one of its subsidiaries.

4. Waymo

Waymo, perhaps the most famous of Alphabet’s parallel divisions, developing an autonomous car with A proprietary driving system without human driversThe company, which rivals companies such as Tesla for contracts to provide robotaxi services, is currently only conducting tests in the US while the vehicle is in motion.

Google projects in the region have been present since 2009, but the situation is not so positive at the moment. Last year, when Waymo was one of the subsidiaries most affected by layoffs in the holding, plans to launch a truck were probably canceled.

Wing 5

Subsidiary since 2018, Wing is a company that works to develop. Delivery technology using dronesThe idea is to offer an alternative to traditional deliveries both in remote areas and close to distribution centers.

The brand already has some partnerships with Walmart stores in the US and is also used to transport medicine. In January 2024, it introduced a new, larger drone model with more payload capacity.

6. X Development

Don’t confuse it with Elon Musk’s social network, formerly known as Twitter. This is X One Project incubation center within AlphabetIt is responsible for the development of housing products and services that can develop on their own.

The idea is for employees to come up with radical ideas that will help improve the world or solve society’s problems, and if possible, implement them. OX has already helped develop Waymo and Wing, as well as bold things like Google Glass.