Alphabet’s Q4 report shows slower than expected growth
Google’s parent company Alphabet put out its Q4 and 2019 fiscal year earnings report and the numbers show a slowdown in revenue growth despite an 18% jump in total revenues on a per-year basis. Revenue growth in the October-December period on the other hand was the lowest in the past 4 years. The report also revealed YouTube ad revenue figures for the first time – $15 billion, but the number is lower than analysts’ estimates which were in the $25 billion ballpark.
Alphabet Q4 2019 and fiscal year highlights
Google Cloud was another underperformer despite growing by 53% quarterly basis as it lags behind competitors like Microsoft Azure. Google Search on the other hand is growing at a solid pace and racked in an impressive $98 billion in 2019, up from $85 billion the year before. As a whole Google’s advertising business is growing at a steady 15% rate as it brought $38 billion in Q4 alone and $135 billion for the full 2019.
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.
I’m really pleased with our continued progress in Search and in building two of our newer growth areas — YouTube and Cloud.” – Sundar Pichai
While total revenues grew to $162 billion, revenues from Google’s “other” product category which includes hardware, Play Store and non-advertising YouTube profits were yet again unimpressive at $5 billion. The “other bets” projects which include Waymo, Verily and Google Fiber continued to operate at a loss – they bled over $2 billion in 2019.
