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Alphabet 2020 Alphabet Alphabet 2020 Annual 2020 Report 2020 Rev2_210419_YIR_Cover.indd 1-3 4/19/21 7:02 PM Alphabet Year in Review 2020 210414_YIR_Design.indd 1 4/15/21 3:57 PM From our CEO 2 Year in Review 210414_YIR_Design.indd 2 4/15/21 3:57 PM To our investors, You might expect a company’s year in review to open with big numbers: how many products we launched, how many consumers and businesses adopted those products, and how much revenue we generated in the process. And, yes, you will see some big numbers shared in the pages of this report and in future earnings calls as well, but 22-plus years in, Google is still not a conventional company (and we don’t intend to become one). And 2020 was anything but a conventional year. That’s why over the past 12 months we’ve measured our success by the people we’ve helped in moments that matter. Our success is in the researchers who used our technology to fight the spread of the coronavirus. It’s in job seekers like Rey Justo, who, after being laid off during the pandemic, earned a Google Career Certificate online and was hired into a great new career. And our success is in all the small businesses who used Google products to continue serving customers and keeping employees on payroll … in the students who kept learning virtually on Google Classroom … and in the grandparents who read bedtime stories to grandchildren from thousands of miles away over Google Meet. We’ve always believed that we only succeed when others do. And that success is only possible because of the incredible teams I have the privilege of leading across Alphabet. Teams who, over the past year — at home with kids on their laps and pets at their feet — never stopped working to deliver on our mission and our core pillars of helpfulness, trust, execution, and supporting our partners. Teams who continue to create sustainable financial value. Teams full of optimists who believe in technology’s ability to make things better for people and communities everywhere. In the pages of this report, you’ll read about some of the ways our products helped people, businesses, and communities adapt and recover. I hope they’ll inspire you as much as they inspire me. Sundar Pichai CEO of Google and Alphabet 3 Introduction 210414_YIR_Design.indd 3 4/15/21 3:57 PM 210414_YIR_Design.indd 4 4/15/21 3:57 PM A look at 2020 Across Alphabet, we found ways to help people, businesses, and communities respond to a transforming world — they weren’t just having to adapt, they were learning to do everything in new ways. At Google, our response was guided by three focus areas: helpful products, trusted experiences, and supporting our partners. 5 A look at 2020 210414_YIR_Design.indd 5 4/15/21 3:57 PM Helpful products In 2020, the world changed more quickly than ever, upending how we live and work. Since the outbreak for an unpredictable time of COVID-19, teams across Google have worked to provide access to quality information and resources, and launched more than 200 new products, features, and initiatives. We wanted to meet people where they are, provide the help they need, and keep them safe at every step. To support public health authorities around the world in their fight against COVID-19, we partnered with Apple to launch the Exposure Notifications System (ENS). Designed to protect users’ privacy while helping public health authorities and governments manage their reopenings, the ENS enabled 50 countries, states, and regions to build apps based on the technology. Making essential information easily accessible in daily life was paramount — we expanded the Search and YouTube experience with knowledge panels featuring local guidance and information about COVID-19 symptoms and prevention, and introduced the COVID layer in Google Maps, a tool that shows information about COVID-19 cases in an area to help users make informed decisions about their travel. As people searched for safe ways to stay connected and productive, we made Google Meet, our premium videoconferencing product, free for everyone; anyone with a Gmail address could enjoy many of the same features available to our Google Cloud business and education users. We also pledged over $1 billion to assist our users, customers, and partners around the world, including $450 million in Ad Grants to worldwide government agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO). As a result, we served over 2.6 billion PSAs from local public health agencies — seen by billions of people globally — to make sure authoritative information reached as many people as possible. Beyond solving for immediate needs, we were also thinking about the future. Our 2019 quantum supremacy milestone led us into a new era of quantum computing, with the potential to take on challenges like designing more efficient batteries or determining what molecules might make effective medicines. But discovering practical applications is not something we can do alone. That’s why we launched qsim, a new open source quantum simulator that will help researchers develop quantum algorithms. By inviting researchers everywhere to join us in this effort, we hope to accelerate the breakthroughs quantum computing can make possible. 6 Year in Review 210414_YIR_Design.indd 6 4/15/21 3:57 PM New knowledge panels in Search made it easy for people to find In Maps, we added a new COVID layer that helps people see the the latest news and authoritative guidance any time they searched density of cases in an area and how they’re trending. Source: JHU about COVID-19 topics. Source: Centers for Disease Control and CSSE COVID-19 Data and other attributed sources. Prevention. For informational purposes only. Consult your local medical authority for advice. Connecting by video chat was crucial to bringing people together, Google and Apple jointly created the Exposure Notifications System so we made Google Meet, our premium videoconferencing product, out of a shared sense of responsibility to help governments and our free for everyone. global community fight the pandemic through contact tracing. 7 Helpful products 210414_YIR_Design.indd 7 4/15/21 3:57 PM To give teachers and families the tools and tips they needed to help keep students learning, our Teach from Anywhere site provided essential distance learning resources. As 1.5 billion learners were impacted by school closures, our tools like Google Classroom were there to help. 8 Year in Review 210414_YIR_Design.indd 8 4/15/21 3:57 PM Since Google’s beyond-classical breakthrough in quantum computing in 2019, we’ve been busy exploring what’s possible in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era. We launched a new Quantum AI website that brings together research initiatives, educational materials, and open source tools, and invites researchers everywhere to join us in exploring the power of quantum. 9 Helpful products 210414_YIR_Design.indd 9 4/15/21 3:57 PM Trusted experiences As much of our lives moved online last year, the safety of our digital tools became even more critical. We for a safer online world continued to put privacy and security at the forefront of our products so that, every day, users are safer with Google. Built-in protections across our products worked proactively to keep digital threats at bay. Gmail blocks more than 99.9% of spam and phishing attempts, and Google Play Protect scans over 100 billion apps for malware and other issues each day. We also made a number of updates: Location History, Web and App Activity, and YouTube History now delete automatically after 18 months by default, and we enhanced Chrome with Safety Check, an easy and intuitive way for users to confirm they’re browsing safely. Our re-launched Safety Center helped users explore how we protect their privacy with one of the world’s most advanced security infrastructures, and we made it even easier for them to manage their online security — in 2020, we saw more traffic than ever, with Privacy Checkup receiving over 1.1 million visitors per day and Security Checkup receiving more than 3.9 million visitors per day. We worked to keep misinformation off our platforms by raising authoritative content and supporting quality journalism. On YouTube, we expanded our COVID-19 medical misinformation policy to remove content about vaccines that contradicts consensus from health authorities such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the WHO. We also invested $6.5 million to support fact-checkers and global nonprofits combating misinformation, with an immediate focus on COVID-19. Every day ... Last year, Americans also turned to Google to inboxes find information on voter registration, polling locations, are secured election results, and more. “How to register” and “how 1.5B to vote” reminders across Search, Maps, and YouTube photos were seen over 2 billion times. On Election Day, we are partnered with the Associated Press to keep users 4B encrypted up-to-date with real-time election results alongside minutes of relevant searches. video calls 7.5B are protected Google Play apps are 100B scanned … to keep users safer with Google 10 Year in Review 210414_YIR_Design.indd 10 4/15/21 3:57 PM Across our products, we work to provide safer experiences for users of all ages. On Safer Internet Day 2020, we expanded the global availability of programs like Be Internet Awesome, which helps kids learn how to make smart online choices at an early age. Our re-launched Safety Center provides a single destination for privacy, security, and family safety across all Google products and services. On YouTube, we amplified authoritative information with information panels on topics like voter registration and how to vote alongside relevant content.
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