The Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., this week.
Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg NewsThe global pandemic dealt a rare losing hand to Google’s venerable digital advertising operation, pushing quarterly revenue down compared with a year earlier for the first time in company history.
The search-engine giant posted a $2.6 billion drop in advertising for the second-quarter from a year earlier, as some of Google’s biggest advertisers, including travel companies and consumer brands, cut back on spending amid economic uncertainty.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai in January. The company’s profit totaled $6.4 billion in the latest quarter, a steep drop.
Photo: fabrice coffrini/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesEarnings Updates
Tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google reported earnings. Follow our coverage for results and analysis.
In all, Google’s parent, Alphabet Inc., reported advertising revenue of $29.9 billion for the three months through June. That metric, which includes ads on Google’s own properties as well as those placed on other websites, fell short of the $32.5 billion haul a year earlier. The weakness appeared to have been driven mostly by Google’s traditional venues such as search; the YouTube video unit, for instance, posted a modest rise in revenue.
Google’s advertising revenue had risen every quarter of the company’s 22-year history, so the reversal is notable. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected the drop in advertising revenue, and investors were mostly undisturbed. Alphabet shares rose roughly 2% in after-hours trading.
Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai blamed the macroeconomic environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and said he saw early signs of potential stabilization. The conglomerate reported total profit of $6.4 billion, a steep drop from a year earlier.
The results at Google stand out in comparison with some of its Big Tech peers. A few minutes before Google disclosed its figures, Amazon.com Inc. said its sales and profit soared in the second quarter as shoppers inundated the company’s site with orders and employees worked from home. And while Facebook Inc. posted diminished growth for the second quarter, the stock surged as revenue came in higher than expected and the social-media giant benefited from higher engagement from users amid the pandemic.
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., faces multiple antitrust investigations into whether its dominant business harms consumers. The company broadly denies that. U.S. prosecutors are expected to file charges against the company as soon as this summer, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you find most revealing in the Google earnings report? Join the conversation below. Join the conversation below.
Write to Rob Copeland at rob.copeland@wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
"short" - Google News
July 31, 2020 at 04:09AM
https://ift.tt/3hOt0an
Google’s Advertising Haul Comes Up Short for First Time - The Wall Street Journal
"short" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2SLaFAJ
No comments:
Post a Comment