Google parent Alphabet Inc on Tuesday reported that quarterly profit more than doubled as digital advertising surged with more people relying on the Internet during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Profit in the first quarter leaped to US$17.9 billion from US$6.8 billion in the same period a year earlier, while revenue jumped 34 percent to US$55.3 billion, led by gains in advertising and cloud computing services.
“Over the last year, people have turned to Google Search and many online services to stay informed, connected and entertained,” Alphabet chief executive officer Sundar Pichai said.
Photo: Reuters
The Silicon Valley giant reported robust gains from advertising on its search engine and its YouTube video-sharing platform.
“People have turned to Google Search more than ever since the pandemic began,” Pichai said on an earnings call, adding that queries ran a gamut from COVID-19 questions to job hunts.
While the pandemic has brought tremendous challenges for small businesses, it has also created opportunities for entrepreneurs to tailor offerings for new trends, Google chief business officer Philipp Schindler said.
“Consumers are spending more time online. They’re buying more online, and they were willing to try new brands and eager to support local businesses,” Schindler said on the call.
Money taken in by Google’s cloud computing division, which competes with services offered by Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, topped US$4 billion, up from US$2.7 billion in the same period a year earlier, as Alphabet continues to invest heavily in data centers and other infrastructure.
“Our cloud services are helping businesses, big and small, accelerate their digital transformations,” Pichai said.
Amazon Web Services is the top cloud service provider, with nearly one-third market share, data provided by industry tracker Canalys showed.
Microsoft’s Azure platform is on the heels of Amazon, while Google is a distant third, Canalys said in a market report.
Microsoft on Tuesday reported that profits rose sharply last quarter amid strong momentum in cloud services for businesses.
Profits jumped 44 percent from the same period a year earlier to US$15.5 billion, while revenue increased 19 percent to US$41.7 billion, it said.
The results showed ongoing momentum for Microsoft as it focuses on services for enterprises in the Internet cloud, which has become more critical during the global health crisis of the past year.
“Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating, and it’s just the beginning,” Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella said. “We are building the cloud for the next decade, expanding our addressable market and innovating across every layer of the tech stack to help our customers be resilient and transform.”
Microsoft said its commercial cloud revenue increased 33 percent in its fiscal third quarter as part of the growing trend.
It reported strong gains in its Office suite of products and a more modest increase in similar software and services for consumers.
Microsoft posted revenue increases across a range of products and services, including its Xbox gaming content and services (34 percent), search advertising (17 percent), the LinkedIn professional social network (25 percent) and its Surface line of computing products (12 percent).
The surging market for PCs helped drive revenue for the Windows operating system up 10 percent year-on-year, with a similar increase in Windows commercial products and cloud services.
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
RSS