Advertising revenues higher than ever
Google’s source of profit is bubbling up
2/1/2022 at 11:27 p.m
The online boom during the corona pandemic makes the tills ring at Google. In the fourth quarter, the turnover of the parent company Alphabet jumps by almost a third, and the net profit is also well above what analysts had expected.
The Google parent company Alphabet has significantly exceeded market expectations with its figures for the past quarter. Sales rose 32 percent year-on-year to $75.3 billion. Analysts had expected a good 72 billion dollars. The bottom line is that quarterly profit rose from 15.2 to 20.6 billion dollars, as Alphabet announced after the US market closed. Earnings per share of $30.69 were also well above analyst forecasts of $27.35.
The stock jumped around eight percent in after-hours trading. Alphabet also announced a 1-for-20 stock split. This will make the paper easier to trade after the price was last above $2700.
As usual, it was Google’s advertising revenue that brought in the bulk of the business. They rose within a year from 46.2 to 61.2 billion dollars. No company sells as many online ads as Google. The pandemic is helping business, after all, people are spending more time on the internet and making more purchases there. With an operating result of around 26 billion dollars, Google services were also the only profit maker. Meanwhile, cloud services saw revenue soar from $3.8 billion to $5.5 billion while operating in the red at $890 million.
The group’s so-called “other bets,” such as self-driving cars and delivery drones, made less revenue but more losses at the same time. Revenue fell from $196 to $181 million. The operating minus rose from 1.1 to 1.4 billion dollars.