"Alphabet’s Google enables access to petabytes of data for over 91% of the global internet base."

Data is the new oil¹. The global data estimate was 44 zettabytes (10²¹ bytes) in 2020 when 1.7 megabytes (10⁶ bytes) of data was created per person per second^1,2,4. Search engines are a great help when it comes to organizing this vast amount of data and finding relevant results on research, entertainment, shopping, etc. in quick time for free^5,7. This helps maximize access to information to literally anyone - focusing on their intent and satisfaction^14,15.

Alphabet Inc. is the parent conglomerate of Google and +200 companies¹¹. In 2020, 99.64% of Alphabet’s revenue ($181,694Mn out of $182,351Mn) came from Google - available in 219 countries and territories^3,8. Its search engine holds 87.76% of the global market share as of 2021, amounting to multiple petabytes (10¹⁵ bytes) of data per day^9,10. It is reportedly the fastest and can provide millions of results for a search in 0.19 seconds⁶. It is also the most viewed website followed by Alphabet’s video platform YouTube¹⁰. Each day, there are 5.4bn Google searches, 1.2bn uploads on Google Photos and over 1bn collective hours of videos streamed on YouTube¹⁰. In 2012, Google AdWords – still the line’s biggest source of revenue – served nearly 30bn impressions per day¹³.

Worldwide, their emailing service, Gmail, and storage service, Google Drive, have over 1.5bn users, Google Maps has +1bn users, and its application hub Play Store has 1bn users¹⁰. Google Analytics is the most used analytics service and Chrome is the most used web browser¹⁰. The company’s virtual assistant is installed in +400mn devices¹⁰. In 2019, the 4bn Google users equaled 52% of the global population, when there were only 4.39bn global internet users, i.e., 57% of its population in all^11,12. This means that +91% of those connected to the internet use at least one Google service on any compatible device from almost anywhere in the world.

Alphabet and Google have enabled access to information via many channels for virtually the whole of the cyber world.

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