Alphabet, Google's parent company, unveiled its Q4 earnings today, presenting a mixed bag. On one hand,
Search
continued its reign as the undisputed king, powering
revenue growth
and showcasing the enduring strength of Google's core competency. On the other hand,
ad revenue
missed Wall Street expectations and
YouTube
's growth sputtered, leaving investors with a mixed bag of results.
Google Services revenues
of $76 billion were up 12% year on year, said Ruth Porat, CFO, Google. In
Google Advertising
, search and other revenues grew 13% year on year. Overall, Google recorded $86.3 billion in revenue, up 13% versus last year in both reported and constant currency. “Search remained the largest contributor to revenue growth,” said Porat.
“We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud,” Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, said in a press release. “Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation.”
AI bets paying off?
Google's focus on AI-powered search experiences, where users get personalised results based on their intent and context, seems to be resonating. “By applying generative AI to Search, we are able to serve a wider range of information needs and answer new types of questions, including those that benefit from multiple perspectives. People are finding it particularly useful for more complex questions, like comparisons or longer queries,” Pichai told investors.
Revenues from the cloud division were $9.2 billion for the quarter, up 26%. “We're very pleased with the momentum of GCP with an increasing contribution from AI,” Porat told investors. Overall, the full-year revenue from Google Cloud business was $33 billion, up 26% from last year. “The Cloud team is intensely focused on bringing the benefits of Gemini, our industry-leading AI technology, to enterprises and governments globally, and we are gratified with the level of engagement,” Porat added.
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