San Francisco (AFP)

Google boss Sundar Pichai on Tuesday headed Alphabet, its parent company, a change symbolizing the evolution of the internet giant who, far from the ideals of its beginnings, now generates tens of billions of dollars in revenue and many controversies.

"If the company was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 years and it would be time to leave the nest. (...) We think it is time to assume the role of proud parents, who offer advice and love, but not daily monitoring! ", wrote Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two founders, who remain shareholders and board members of Alphabet.

At 47, Sundar Pichai replaces them both. He will simultaneously run Google and its parent company.

"Sundar brings humility and a passion for technology to our users, partners and employees on a daily basis. (...) We could not have done better to lead Google and Alphabet into the future. ", added the two entrepreneurs, few present for several years.

The search engine and its YouTube video platform account for the overwhelming majority of the group's revenue, thanks to advertising revenue.

Alphabet was founded in 2015 to encompass Google and all the non-core activities of the group, from Waymo's autonomous cars to the subsidiary Sidewalk Labs dedicated to "smart cities", or Calico, a biotech specialist.

Most of these "bets" lose money despite Google's resources, because they "do not have the mentality + to succeed or die + independent start-ups," says Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies.

- From Chennai to Silicon Valley -

The appointment of Sundar Pichai is therefore "completely logical", according to Bob O'Donnell of Technalysis. "It's obvious that things are going well for Google, so why not give your boss the reins of the whole group?"

Born in a modest environment in Chennai, India, Sundar Pichai studied at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kharagpur before moving to the United States to continue his studies (notably at Stanford University) and launch his career.

He takes control of a giant who employs more than 100,000 people worldwide and has a turnover of 136 billion dollars in 2018 (including more than 30 billion net profit).

But the Californian group is now entangled in many controversies related to its dominance on the internet and in technology in general.

Many governments and regulators accuse it of bad practices in terms of protection of privacy and management of personal data.

Europe regularly criticizes Google and other digital giants for not paying their fair share of tax, thanks to optimization packages that allow them to transfer their profits to low tax jurisdictions.

In the United States, the search engine faces several antitrust investigations to determine whether it has abused its dominant position in certain markets.

- Transparency -

Finally, internally, the group is regularly criticized for having largely deviated ideals engraved in the code of conduct of the beginnings, which included the formula "do not be evil", that is to say "do not be malicious".

The reproaches of employees or ex-employees relate to various topics, the company's relations with the US or Chinese governments to accusations of stifling cases of sexual harassment.

"I do not think that Sundar Pichai has dealt with all these problems enough, he is very intelligent and very competent, he has a very discreet and measured attitude, but he seems to have rather avoided these questions", comments Bob O'Donnell.

In November 2018, from Singapore to London and the group's headquarters in California, thousands of Google employees had observed a work stoppage to denounce the management of harassment within the company. An unprecedented social movement in the search engine.

In October, Sundar Pichai admitted at an internal meeting "to have a real hard time (setting up) transparency on a large scale," according to the Washington Post.

The American newspaper also recently revealed that weekly meetings within the company, open to all and all questions, would now be monthly and restricted to "business" topics.

The change of president represents "the last brick in the building that this great firm has become.The idealistic time of the founders is over," notes Bob O'Donnell. "But it was already the case for two years, this announcement only makes it official".

© 2019 AFP