Google’s parent company Alphabet said on Thursday that its position as a leader in online advertising continues to pay off despite recent industry volatility, with revenue from search engine and video platform YouTube rising significantly in the latest quarter.
Alphabet reported quarterly revenue of $80.5 billion, up 15 percent from a year earlier, beating analyst estimates of $78.8 billion. Profit rose 36% to $23.7 billion. Analysts had expected $18.9 billion.
Alphabet has announced that it will pay its first shareholder a dividend of 20 cents per share on June 17. The company’s board also approved a $70 billion share repurchase program. Alphabet shares rose 13 percent in after-hours trading.
The digital advertising industry has been booming and booming for the past two years. In 2022, rising inflation and interest rates will cause advertisers to cut spending, hurting Google and competitors like Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. Google’s search engine has since proven to be the most resilient to the ups and downs, underscoring its role as a gateway to the Internet for billions of people.
Alphabet continues to generate tens of billions of dollars in advertising revenue each year and will use that capital to aggressively push artificial intelligence as part of growing competition from Microsoft and OpenAI, maker of the ChatGPT chatbot.
Bhupendra Singh Chundawat is a seasoned technology journalist with over 22 years of experience in the media industry. He specializes in covering the global technology landscape, with a deep focus on manufacturing trends and the geopolitical impact on tech companies. Currently serving as the Editor at Udaipur Kiran, his insights are shaped by decades of hands-on reporting and editorial leadership in the fast-evolving world of technology.