How Old Is Google in 2025? 27 Years Since 1998 Founding

Google turned 27 years old in 2025, and it’s still the internet’s dominant search engine despite being six years older than the iPhone and over a decade older than the iPad. Netflix actually beat it to market by a full year, founded in April 1998 versus Google’s April 1998 incorporation. Whether you’re here for trivia or investing context, these are the facts.

Founded: September 4, 1998 · Current Age (2025): 27 years · Founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin · IPO Year: 2004 · Ownership Control: 56% by founders

What was Google called in 1999?

Before it became a global verb, Google had a much humbler—and frankly, stranger—name. The search engine that would eventually dominate the internet started as a Stanford research project in 1996, operating under the name “BackRub.” The name referred to the project’s focus on analyzing backlinks to rank web pages, according to the Wikipedia History of Google.

The pivot to “Google” happened in 1997, when graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the domain google.com and officially rebranded. The name comes from “googol,” a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros—a nod to their ambitions for organizing the impossibly vast universe of online information. By 1999, the company had moved out of the Stanford garage and into its first real office in Menlo Park, California.

Original name BackRub

• Started as Larry Page’s PhD research project at Stanford University in 1996
• PageRank algorithm analyzed backlinks to determine web page importance
• First office: a Menlo Park garage rented from a friend (SEO Acronym blog)

Rebranding to Google

• Domain google.com registered September 1997 (Office Timeline)
• Company officially incorporated September 4, 1998
• First Google Doodle appeared September 1997 to announce company presence at the Burning Man festival

History of Google timeline

Three decades of milestones compressed into a single timeline tells the story of how a garage startup became one of the most influential companies in human history.

• 1996: Larry Page begins BackRub research at Stanford, developing the PageRank algorithm that will become Google’s foundation (Sitecentre blog)
• 1997: google.com domain registered; Sergey Brin joins as co-developer
• 1998: Company officially founded September 4 in a Menlo Park garage; first Google Doodle appears in August
• 2000: Google AdWords launches, establishing the company’s dominant advertising model (Office Timeline)
• 2002: Google News debuts, curating stories from thousands of sources (Wikipedia History of Google)
• 2003: Company relocates to Mountain View headquarters (Wikipedia History of Google)
• 2004: Google goes public via IPO; Gmail launches in April (Wikipedia History of Google)
• 2005: Google Maps introduced; Android acquired for $50 million (Wikipedia History of Google)
• 2006: YouTube acquired for $1.65 billion, a move that seemed expensive at the time (Sitecentre)
• 2008: Google Chrome browser launches, eventually becoming the world’s most-used browser
• 2015: Google restructures under parent company Alphabet Inc.; Sundar Pichai becomes CEO (SEO.ai blog)
• 2025: Google celebrates its 27th birthday

1998 founding

The September 4, 1998 founding date marks when Larry Page and Sergey Brin formally incorporated Google Inc., according to the SEO Acronym blog. That first year was lean: the entire team fit in a Menlo Park garage, and their server count was small enough to count on two hands.

2004 IPO

Going public in August 2004 was Google’s formal arrival as a major corporation, raising $1.67 billion in what was then the largest tech IPO since Netscape in 1995, according to the Wikipedia History of Google. The IPO priced shares at $85; 20 years later, the stock has split multiple times and returned thousands of percent to early investors.

Key milestones

The milestones that define Google’s age trajectory aren’t just product launches—they’re inflection points. Gmail in 2004 changed expectations for web email. Android in 2005 gave Google mobile operating system dominance. YouTube in 2006 secured video. Chrome in 2008 created the dominant browser. Each decision compounded, turning a search engine into an ecosystem.

Who is older, Google or Netflix?

Here’s a trivia curveball: Netflix predates Google by roughly one year. Netflix was founded on August 29, 1997, by Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings in Scotts Valley, California, according to the Wikipedia Timeline of Netflix. Google didn’t officially incorporate until September 4, 1998.

The two companies launched in completely different eras of tech. Netflix started as a DVD-by-mail rental service, born from Reed Hastings’ frustration with a $40 late fee for a movie rental, according to the VdoCipher blog. Google emerged during the first internet boom, building a search algorithm that solved a problem nobody knew they’d have yet.

Both went public in the mid-2000s: Netflix in 2002, Google in 2004. As of 2025, Netflix is approximately 28 years old compared to Google’s 27, making them close in age but vastly different in market trajectory.

Google founding date

• Officially incorporated: September 4, 1998
• Domain registered: September 1997 (Office Timeline)
• First office: Menlo Park garage

Netflix founding date

• Founded: August 29, 1997
• Website launched: April 14, 1998 (Wikipedia Timeline of Netflix)
• Founders: Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings (previously worked at Pure Software)

Age comparison table

Netflix and Google are near-twins in tech age, but their paths to dominance diverged sharply.

What if I invested $1000 in Google in 2004?

A hypothetical $1,000 investment in Google’s 2004 IPO offers a useful benchmark for tech investors thinking about long-term holds versus trades. When Google went public on August 19, 2004, shares priced at $85 each, meaning your $1,000 would have bought roughly 11 shares before splits.

Over the 20 years since that IPO, Google parent Alphabet has executed multiple stock splits that dramatically lowered the per-share price while increasing share count. A single original share has become several post-split shares. If we apply the rough magnitude of that growth, early investors saw returns that outpaced nearly every market index, according to historical Alphabet stock performance data.

IPO details

• IPO date: August 19, 2004 (Wikipedia History of Google)
• Offer price: $85 per share
• Raised: $1.67 billion
• First-day close: $100.34 per share

Return calculations

Calculating exact 2025 returns requires live market data, but the magnitude is well-established: Alphabet has split its stock twice (2014 two-for-one, 2022 20-for-1) while maintaining dominant market positions in search, advertising, and increasingly cloud computing.

Comparison to other investments

Google’s 20-year return dwarfs the S&P 500 average for the same period. Netflix, by comparison, grew even more explosively post-IPO but with significantly higher volatility. For context: Netflix IPO’d in 2002 at $15 per share; Google followed in 2004 at $85. Both became trillion-dollar companies, but Google’s revenue base remained steadier through market cycles.

Who owns Google?

Google’s ownership structure is layered: the company operates as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., which became the parent holding company in 2015. But the real control sits with its founders. Larry Page and Sergey Brin hold 14% of Alphabet shares while controlling 56% of total voting power through dual-class share structures, according to the Wikipedia entry on Google.

This dual-class structure is common in tech—Facebook (now Meta), LinkedIn, and others use similar setups to let founders maintain control while the company remains publicly traded. It means shareholders own the economic upside but don’t control strategic decisions.

Top shareholders

• Larry Page: ~7% of shares, ~26% of voting control
• Sergey Brin: ~7% of shares, ~26% of voting control
• Vanguard Group: institutional investor, large passive holdings
• BlackRock: institutional investor, passive holdings

Founders’ control

The 56% voting control figure is the key number. Combined, Page and Brin can veto any shareholder resolution regardless of how much institutional money owns the float. This governance model has kept Google (and now Alphabet) strategy aligned with founder vision, though it also concentrates decision-making authority.

Alphabet structure

The 2015 restructuring created Alphabet as a holding company with Google as its largest subsidiary, according to the SEO.ai blog. Other Alphabet subsidiaries include YouTube, Android, Waymo (autonomous vehicles), Verily (healthcare), and DeepMind (AI research). This structure lets each unit operate with startup agility while sharing infrastructure and brand.

“Google was founded on September 4, 1998, during the exciting early days of Silicon Valley.”

— SEO.ai, Blog Author

“The idea came after Hastings was charged a late fee for a movie rental.”

— VdoCipher, Blog Author

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Founded September 4, 1998, Google marks 27 years in 2025, with its detailed 27-year timeline analysis offering insights into IPO returns and ownership shifts.

Frequently asked questions

For investors evaluating tech companies by age and track record, Google’s 27-year run offers a useful benchmark: sustainable relevance comes from compounding advantages in data, talent, and distribution—not from being first. Netflix proved you can reinvent yourself mid-journey and still win. Google proved you can stay dominant by staying flexible.