Alphabet Investor Relations

Who should I contact for press related inquiries?

• Reach out to press@google.com.

Can you add me to your email distribution list?

• See the home page of the IR website for new announcements.

Can you send me print copies of your Annual Report?

• Refer to this link.

Can you grant me permission to use your logo or screenshots of your blogs?

• Logos: The Investor Relations team is not able to grant permission for use of our logo. The guidelines and process for obtaining permission to use the Google logo can be found on this page, along with a link to a formal request form.
• Screenshots: See the Google Permissions website for our policies on how to use screenshots under the "Products" tab and this formal request form for additional requests (such as logos).

What’s the difference between Class A and Class C shares?

• Class A stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol GOOGL.
  Class C stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol GOOG.
  Class A has one vote per share, while Class C has no voting rights.

How do I convert Class C shares to Class A (or vice-versa)?

• Exchanging or converting shares is not possible. You would have to sell Class C shares and then buy Class A shares.

Does Alphabet pay a dividend?

• We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our common or capital stock. The primary use of capital continues to be to invest for the long term growth of the business. We regularly evaluate our cash and capital structure, including the size, pace and form of capital return to stockholders.

When did Google split its stock?

• In January 2014, the board of directors of Google approved the distribution of shares of Class C capital stock as a dividend to holders of Class A and Class B common stock (the Stock Split). The Stock Split had a record date of March 27, 2014 and a payment date of April 2, 2014.

A glossary of terms you can find on Alphabet financial statements.

Google Services Segment

• Includes products and services such as ads, Android, Chrome, hardware (including Fitbit, Nest), Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. Google Services generates revenues primarily from advertising; sales of apps and in-app purchases, digital content products, and hardware; and fees received for subscription-based products such as YouTube Premium and YouTube TV

Google Cloud Segment

• Google Cloud includes Google’s infrastructure and platform services, collaboration tools, and other services for enterprise customers
• Google Cloud generates revenues primarily from fees received for Google Cloud Platform ("GCP") services, Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite) collaboration tools and other enterprise services

Other Bets Segment

• Other Bets is a combination of multiple operating segments that are not individually material
• Includes businesses such as Access/Fiber, Calico, CapitalG, GV, Verily, Waymo and X, among others
• Revenues from the Other Bets are derived primarily through the sale of health technology through Verily and internet services through Access/Fiber

Unallocated

• Unallocated corporate costs primarily include corporate initiatives, corporate shared costs, such as finance and legal, including certain fines and settlements, as well as costs associated with certain shared research and development activities. Additionally, hedging gains (losses) related to revenue are included in corporate costs

Google Services Revenues

• Advertising revenues: Google Search & Other
• Google search properties (including revenues from traffic generated by search distribution partners who use Google.com as their default search in browsers, toolbars, etc.)
• Revenues generated from advertising on other Google owned and operated properties like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Play
• Advertising revenues: YouTube Ads
• YouTube properties
• YouTube Ads revenues are primarily recognized on a gross basis. Content acquisition costs for YouTube, which are payments to content providers from whom we license video and other content for distribution, are recognized in Other Cost of Revenues
• Advertising revenues: Google Network
• Google Network properties participating in AdMob, AdSense, and Google Ad Manager
• Google Other revenues
• Google Play revenues, which include sales of apps and in-app purchases (which we recognize net of payout to developers) and digital content sold in the Google Play store. Sales of certain digital content on the Play store are recorded on a gross basis
• Devices and Services revenues, which include sales of hardware, such as Fitbit wearable devices, Google Nest home products, Pixel phones
• YouTube non-advertising revenues, including YouTube Premium and YouTube TV subscriptions
• Other products and services

Monetization

Paid clicks on Google Search & other

• Clicks on ads by end-users related to searches on Google search properties
• Clicks related to ads on other owned and operated properties including Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Play
• YouTube engagement ads are not included in our paid clicks metrics

Cost-per-click on Google Search & other

• Click-driven revenues divided by our total number of paid clicks and represents the average amount we charge advertisers for each engagement by users
• YouTube engagement ads are not included in our cost-per-click metrics

Impressions on Google Network properties

• Includes impressions served on Google Network properties participating primarily in AdMob, AdSense, and Google Ad Manager (includes what was formerly DoubleClick AdExchange)

Cost-per-impression on Google Network properties

• Impression-based and click-based revenues divided by our total number of impressions and represents the average amount we charge advertisers for each impression displayed to users

Expenses

Traffic acquisition costs (TAC)

• Amounts paid to our distribution partners who make available our search access points and services
• Amounts paid to Google Network partners primarily for ads displayed on their properties
• Distribution partners include browser providers, mobile carriers, original equipment manufacturers, and software developers

Other cost of revenues

• Content acquisition costs primarily related to payments to content providers from whom we license video and other content for distribution on YouTube advertising and subscription services and Google Play (we pay fees to these content providers based on revenues generated or a flat fee). Content acquisition costs also include licensing costs for news from our Google News Showcase product
• Credit card and other transaction fees related to processing customer transactions
• Expenses associated with our data centers (including bandwidth, compensation expenses (including stock-based compensation), depreciation, energy, and other equipment costs) as well as other operations costs (such as content review and customer and product support costs)
• Inventory and other costs related to the hardware we sell

Other

Net payments related to stock-based award activities

• The “Net payments related to stock-based award activities” line in the statement of cash flows primarily reflects employee tax withholding payments related to stock-based compensation

Revenue Backlog

• We have performance obligations associated with commitments in customer contracts, primarily related to Google Cloud, for future services that have not yet been recognized as revenues (“revenue backlog”). This includes related deferred revenue currently recorded and amounts that will be invoiced in future periods, and excludes contracts with an original expected term of one year or less and cancellable contracts

Accounting for prior COVID-19 response efforts:

• Certain of our support efforts in response to COVID-19 are reflected in the financial statements as follows:
• For ad credits or ad grants, there is no revenue recognized in our results when the ad credit or ad grant is used
• Charitable contributions are reflected in general and administrative expenses
• Our investment fund supporting non-government organizations and financial institutions around the world to help provide small businesses with access to capital is recorded on the balance sheet as a receivable and assessed for credit losses on an ongoing basis

Capex

• Our capital investments in property and equipment consist primarily of the following major categories:
• Technical infrastructure, which consists of our investments in servers and network equipment for compute, storage and networking requirements for ongoing business activities, including machine learning, (collectively referred to as our information technology assets) and data center land and building construction; and
• Office facilities, which consists of acquisitions, ground up development projects and related building improvements

Useful Lives of Property and Equipment

• Following summarizes useful lives for property and equipment as of January 1, 2021:
• Buildings depreciated over periods of seven to 25 years
• Server equipment depreciated generally over four years
• Network equipment depreciated generally over five years
• Leasehold improvements depreciated over the shorter of the remaining lease term or the estimated useful lives of the assets