Alphabet Reports Fourth Quarter Earnings

Analysis: AI is How Google Wins

Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon all reported their earnings last month. And now, it’s time for Alphabet — Google’s parent company. The company today reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of the 2019 financial year.

Alphabet reported net income of $10.7 billion on revenues of $46.08 billion in Q4 2019.

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For the fourth quarter of 2019, Google Search and “other” brought in $27.2 billion in revenues. Total revenue from Google was $46 billion, bringing the total revenue from Google in 2019 up to $162 billion — that’s a whopping 18% increase year-over-year.

For the first time ever, Google is also revealing revenue from YouTube ads, and it is pretty amazing. YouTube brought in $15 billion in annual ad revenue in 2019, with $4.7 billion in the last quarter of 2019. It’s no secret YouTube is big business for Google and Alphabet, but this just further proves how the platform is such a core part of Google’s business.

Google’s Cloud division, on the other hand, brought in $2.6 billion in revenue in the last quarter. By comparison, Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud business posted $11.9 billion in revenues in the same quarter.

“Our investments in deep computer science, including artificial intelligence, ambient computing, and cloud computing, provide a strong base for continued growth and new opportunities across Alphabet,” said Sundar Pichai, who was recently appointed as the CEO of both Google and its parent company Alphabet.

“I’m really pleased with our continued progress in Search and in building two of our newer growth areas — YouTube, already at $15 billion in annual ad revenue, and Cloud, which is now on a $10 billion revenue run rate,” added Pichai.

Google’s ad business hit a revenue of $37.3 billion in Q4, which is obviously a majority of both Google and Alphabet’s revenue. Alphabet’s Other Bets brought in $172 million in revenue, which is not too shocking.

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Conversation 7 comments

  • branpurn

    03 February, 2020 - 4:55 pm

    <p>Alphabet-Google look less and less nimble with each passing year. That's not a good thing or a bad thing, they're just becoming more of a "blue chip" than a fast-paced innovative magnate of Silicon Valley.</p>

  • F4IL

    03 February, 2020 - 5:24 pm

    <p>TBH I am somewhat surprised by Youtube's revenue. Reading the news (online) I was lead to believe that Youtube was neither profitable nor breaking even. Having Youtube turning in 15$ billion is a big deal.</p>

  • Jeffsters

    03 February, 2020 - 7:16 pm

    <p>No innovation. Alphabet is far to dependent on Google ad revenue. What’s next Google?</p>

  • jchampeau

    Premium Member
    03 February, 2020 - 9:08 pm

    <p>Mehedi, PLEASE learn the difference between revenues and earnings. Don’t write a headline that says Alphabet reports earnings and then not tell us what they earned.</p><p><br></p><p>Revenues = total amount of cash that came in.</p><p><br></p><p>Earnings = how much of those revenues were profit.</p><p><br></p><p>Think of it this way. If I’m a shareholder in Bob’s lawn care service and it brings in $5000 a month but Bob spends $5100 to operate the business, I’m losing money. I don’t care what the revenue was…all I care about is what was made or lost. If I also invest in Susie’s lawn care and her revenues are $2200 but she only spent $2000 to operate her business, she made the shareholders $200. That Bob’s revenues were $5000 and Susie’s were $2000 is essentially immaterial. What I care about is that Bob’s business lost money and Susie’s made money. The revenues don’t matter but the earnings do.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      04 February, 2020 - 8:23 am

      Both matter. I feel like revenues are much more important than profits for the long-term, while profits can vary wildly based on specific, non-repeating incidents, and don’t map as well over the long term as trends.

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    03 February, 2020 - 11:20 pm

    <p>I bet that 18% increase in search revenue is because the average user can’t tell the difference between an Ad and the top search result. User clicks the ad and what do you know… google just got paid. Nice way to monetize the top result. …. sneaky </p><p><br></p><p>love to see what industry thinks the ROI on digital ad revenue is. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

  • doubledeej

    04 February, 2020 - 12:05 pm

    <p>With those kinds of numbers for YouTube, they should be sharing more with their creators.</p><p><br></p><p>While my content is specialized, I have the most popular YouTube channel in my market segment, with over 1.2 million views. Yet my channel only brought in $735 for all of 2019.</p>

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