The boss of Google Sundar Pichai is now also that of Alphabet, its parent company. This change, made Tuesday, December 3, symbolizes the evolution of the digital 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.

Modest middle

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.

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).

controversies

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

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.

With AFP