Debasis Mohapatra
Bengaluru, 25 July 2024
Google’s search engine revenue continues to rise with its global dominance on search remaining intact despite all the talks of generative AI (GenAI) tools and apps eating into the global technology giant’s search volume.
In Q2 (April-June) of 2024, Alphabet Inc.- the parent company of Google, posted a 14% year-over-year increase in its core Google Search business. Revenue from the Search business stood at $48.5 billion during the second quarter as compared to $42.62 billion reported a year ago.
Revenue from YouTube ads was at $8.66 billion in Q2 of 2024 as compared to $7.66 billion a year ago. Similarly, the top line of Google Network declined to $7.44 billion from $7.85 billion a year ago.
Total revenue from Google Advertising was at $64.61 billion in the second quarter from $58 billion reported in the same period a year ago.
Google Cloud surpassed $10 billion in revenue during this period, indicating rising demand from enterprises.
“Our strong performance this quarter highlights ongoing strength in Search and momentum in Cloud. We are innovating at every layer of the AI stack. Our longstanding infrastructure leadership and in-house research teams position us well as technology evolves and as we pursue the many opportunities ahead,” Sundar Pichai, CEO said in a statement.
Markets not impressed:
Despite meeting the earnings expectations, Alphabet’s share price saw selling pressure in the US exchanges on Wednesday. The share price of Alphabet declined 5% to settle at $174.37 on Nasdaq. Analysts pointed out the revenue miss on the YouTube ads segment as the company was facing increasing pressure from social media sites like TikTok.
Overall, technology stocks took a heavy beating on Wednesday as investors were worried about overstretched valuation which their earnings might not support in the future.
Nasdaq Composite was down 3.64% on Wednesday as the Magnificent 7 tech stocks lost more than $750 billion in market cap. EV maker, Tesla was another firm, whose stock price slid more than 12%. After a meteoric rise in recent months, Nvidia (NVDA) share price continued to fall. The chip maker’s stock fell almost 7% while Broadcom (AVGO) and Arm (ARM) each declined around 8%.
