Alphabet, Google's parent organization, wrapped 2021 on a good note, announcing better-than-expected returns in a year in which the corporation roughly doubled its profits amid increased regulatory scrutiny.
For three months ending December 31st, the corporation reported revenues of more than $75.3 billion, up 32% from the previous year, and recorded a profit of approximately $20.6 billion, exceeding expectations set by analysts comfortably. In after-hours trading, Alphabet's stock jumped over 7%.
In what was a tough reporting period for several smaller businesses in the tech industry, Google, the latest of the US internet titans to announce earnings, once again demonstrated how dominant it continues to remain in the video, search, and online advertising.
Ad revenues for the quarter totaled $61.2 billion, rising from $46.2 billion from a year ago, as the firm proceeded to profit from a pandemic-driven surge in digital advertising.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, stated that the company's substantial investment in AI technologies keeps producing remarkable and beneficial experiences for businesses and people, spanning its most essential products.
Throughout its monopoly in digital advertising, Alphabet is facing a slew of regulatory inspections in Europe and the United States. Texas, Washington state, as well as the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against Alphabet last month, alleging privacy infringements.
To put it in simple words, even when users had turned off their ‘location history’ feature, the firm supposedly continued to track their physical locations.
Last year, Apple announced modifications to iOS that required users to accept in if they wished apps to track them over websites and apps. This severely affected several advertisers’ ability to effectively target advertisements towards users.
However, since Google gathers its own data through search traffic as well as YouTube, the iOS shift has had less of an impact on its earnings. In Q4 2021, YouTube advertising alone generated $8.63 billion in income for the corporation.
On revenue of $5.54 billion, the firm's Cloud business had an operating loss of $890 million. The Other Bets segment, which comprises Waymo, the automated vehicle arm, and Verily, the medical sciences branch, raked in $181 million in sales.
Last year, Alphabet reached $200 billion in revenue for the first time, nearly tripling its revenue from 2016, only five years prior.
Source credit: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/01/google-alphabet-profits-revenues-earnings