如果你以上市价格买入谷歌股票，现在会多么富有？

今年早些时候，沃伦·巴菲特和查理·芒格对伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司的投资者表示，在谷歌2004年8月19日首次公开募股时错过该公司的股票是一个错误。据巴菲特说，谷歌的创始人当时带着招股说明书来找伯克希尔公司，然而，他承认，“我搞砸了。”

回首过去，谷歌本会是一次成功的投资。该搜索引擎在2004年第一次登陆股市时，价值还不如牙膏制造商高露洁棕榄，首日收盘后的市值约为270亿美元。如今，它已是标普500指数中第二大的公司，市值约为6,480亿美元。公司的早期投资者也赚了盆满钵满。

那些在13年前以85美元的首次公开募股价格购买谷歌股票的投资者，如今持有的股票价值已经是当初的22倍。这还考虑了公司在2015年的股份拆细，当时谷歌进行了重组，成为了Alphabet的子公司。

换句话说，2004年的1美元变成了如今的22美元，100美元变成了2,200美元，1,000美元变成了22,000美元，当时投资4.55万美元的人，到周五时已经变成了百万富翁。

作为对比，在标普500的股票中进行投资的人，同期的平均投资回报率只有2.3倍。

与此同时，该公司的收入增长也超出了股市平均水准。2016年，Alphabet收入为903亿美元，2004年以来增长了28倍。公司的大部分收入仍然来自谷歌网站的广告，比例达到89%。剩下的还包括谷歌在2006年收购的视频分享平台YouTube产生的收入。

Alphabet的崛起，原因在于谷歌的搜索引擎已经成为了大约数十亿月活跃用户的生活必需品。实际上，根据亚马逊持有的流量数据查询网站Alexa的数据，谷歌的搜索引擎是访问量最大的网站，每个用户每天会在上面用掉近8分钟时间。

Alphabet也在寻求其他增长点。公司如今在稳固发展其云服务业务，同时通过收购DeepMind等公司增强人工智能领域的实力。谷歌的触角还伸到了无人机、自动驾驶汽车和智能城市上，甚至还开始销售Pixel智能手机等消费品硬件。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Earlier this year, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger told Berkshire Hathaway investors that passing on Google stock shortly after its initial public offering on August 19, 2004 was a mistake. According to Buffett, Google's founders approached Berkshire with a investment prospectus, but, he admitted, "I blew it."

In retrospect, Google would have been a winning investment. When it first hit the stock market in 2004, the search engine was worth less than toothpaste-maker Colgate-Palmolive, at about $27 billion at the close of trading that day. Today, it's the second largest company of the S&P 500 Index with a market value of about $648 billion. And its early investors rose right alongside it.

An investor who bought Google stock 13 years ago at its IPO price of $85 would now own a piece of the company worth about 22 times their original investment. That also takes into account the company's stock split in 2015, when it restructured under a larger company called Alphabet.

Put it another way: A dollar in 2004 would have turned into 22, one hundred into $2,200, one thousand to $22,000, with an investor offering $45,500 becoming a millionaire by Friday.

In comparison, an investor who had decided to invest in the S&P 500 would've only received a 2.3 times return on their initial investment.

Meanwhile, the company's revenue growth has outpaced that of its stock. In 2016, Alphabet reported revenue of $90.3 billion, which has grown 28 times since 2004. The majority of the revenue also still comes from advertising on Google websites, about 89%. That now also includes video-sharing platform YouTube, which Google bought in 2006.

Alphabet's surge has come as Google's search engine has become an integral part of its estimated billion-plus monthly users. In fact, its search engine has become the most frequented site on the web, according to Amazon-owned Alexa, with consumers spending nearly 8 minutes each on the site daily.

Alphabet is also looking to other areas for growth. The company is steadily growing its cloud services business, while expanding its artificial intelligence capabilities via acquisitions such as DeepMind. It's also working on drones, self-driving cars, and smart cities. The company has even started selling consumer hardware like its Pixel smartphone.