The biggest current threat to Alphabet might be the trade war that U.S. President Donald J. Trump (R-New York) has declared against the European Union (EU). The greatest long-term threat to Alphabet is all the competition it is receiving in advertising. Menaces there include social media such as Facebook’s (NASDAQ: FB) and its WhatsApp solution. WhatsApp had 1.5 billion users in December 2017, Statista calculated.