Alphabet Inc. warned investors about a slew of new competitors, highlighting the company’s broad expansion beyond its original Google search business. Alphabet named rivals including Apple, Netflix and Hulu, while highlighting risks from new businesses such as consumer hardware manufacturing, according to its latest annual report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. Here are the top new competitive disclosures, gleaned from a comparison between Alphabet’s latest annual report and the filing from a year earlier: — "Providers of digital video services, such as Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu." Google’s YouTube has new paid subscription versions of its online video offering that compete more directly with the latter three companies. Executives were cautiously optimistic about this on an earnings call last week. "[It] takes a while to build a subscription business here," Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said. — "Digital assistant providers, such as Apple...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.