Alphabet Swot Analysis

Alphabet SWOT Analysis

Alphabet SWOT Analysis

Alphabet was created in August 2015 as a new public holding company for a collection of businesses with innovative ideas and projects. Alphabet consists of Google; Nest, the connected-home business; Fiber, Google’s fast Internet service; Calico, the health research lab; Google X, the company’s research lab that pursues long-term risky projects like the self-driving car; Google Ventures, its venture-capital arm; Google Capital, a late-stage investment unit; and Sidewalk, a recently formed urban technology project (Alphabet, 2015). Through the group of diversified businesses Alphabet hopes to make strides in their respective industries and remain a place of incredible creativity and innovation that utilizes their technical expertise to tackle big problems.

Strengths

The major strength of Alphabet is being able to utilize Google and its innovation in search and advertising making it one of the most recognized brands in the world. Google generates revenue 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 (Alphabet, 2015). With the amount of users that actively use their products, Alphabet has the audience to leverage and promote their latest projects and initiatives.

Weaknesses

Alphabet is not without its weaknesses and there seem to be some major ones in mobile ads, social networking, and the cloud (Sun, 2015). Mobile ads prove to be problematic because the technology used in their desktop ads is not easily transferable to mobile devices. Most companies offer apps of their own for individuals to use versus having to use a browser like on desktops. Social networking is dominated by rival Facebook and they have figured out a way to embed ads customized to users based on their personal interest and hobbies. Alphabet has a social networking platform of their own but it is not nearly as popular as Facebook. Apple has the smartphone market and utilizes the cloud to provide an easy interface of making media available to users on all of their devices.

Opportunities

There are many opportunities for Alphabet to capitalize on in the near future. Fast search and high-quality ads matter only if you have access to the Internet. Right now, only a fraction of the seven billion people in the world are fortunate enough to be able to get online (Alphabet, 2015). With so much information available today, it is unfortunate that such a significant portion of the world's population lacks an Internet connection. Alphabet also has numerous businesses in a variety of industries hoping to prove revolutionary, including self-driving cars, “smart” homes that are connected to the grid, and also to diversify by investing in other major companies through its capital investment firms.