Google Market Cap Surpasses Amazon's For The First Time

According to Dow Jones Market Data, shares of Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG rose to 2% on Friday, surpassing the market capitalization of Amazon AMZN.

What Happened: Alphabet closed its Friday session with a market cap of $1.622 trillion, while Amazon Inc AMZN closed at $1.616 trillion, MarketWatch reports.

For the first time in the last 16 months, Alphabet Inc’s market valuation was higher than Amazon.com Inc.

MarketWatch quoted Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. analyst Brian White, saying that “Alphabet is “well-positioned for a continued recovery in digital ad spending in 2021,” though he expects continued antitrust scrutiny of the company.

According to FactSet, the average price target among analysts for Amazon is $4,272.49. However, the average price target for Alphabet shares is $2.791.48.

Why It Matters: Both Alphabet’s Google and Amazon are strengthening their e-commerce advertising businesses to increase their market valuation. 

To boost its e-commerce business, Google recently partnered with Shopify Inc SHOP and Square Inc SQ to create product listings on Google Maps and Google Shopping.

Read also: Cathie Wood Buys $10.5M In Google, Loads Up Another $31.6M In Zoom

Alphabet is shifting focus towards user privacy in the advertising business after it announced that it would get rid of third-party cookies.