Advertising business experienced headwinds! Alphabet's revenue and earnings in Q2 fell short of expectations!

It is learned that Alphabet reported Q2 revenue and earnings that were lower than expected. The following is a summary of the Q2 financial report:

• Revenue : $69.69 billion, up 13% from 62% a year ago, compared with Refinitiv expectations of $69.9 billion.
• Earnings per share : $1.21 vs. $1.28 expected by Refinitiv
• Advertising revenue : Up 12% to $56.3 billion as marketers step up spending to counter inflationary pressures
• YouTube ad revenue : $7.34 billion, down 5% from 84% growth in the same period last year, compared to StreetAccount's estimate of $7.52 billion.
• Google Cloud revenue : $6.28 billion vs. StreetAccount’s estimate of $6.41 billion
• Google search revenue : $40.69 billion, up from $35.85 billion a year ago, with travel and retail queries driving the growth;
• Traffic acquisition costs (TAC): $12.21 billion, StreetAccount expected $12.41 billion.

In addition to the overall decline in advertising spending, YouTube is also facing fierce competition from TikTok in short videos. Alphabet's Other Bets division saw revenue increase by $1 million year-on-year to $193 million. The self-driving car division Waymo, as well as some health technology projects and the company's venture capital division lost $1.69 billion in the quarter.

Google Cloud, which lost $858 million in the quarter, failed to meet revenue expectations. The cloud division is trying to take a bite out of the market from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, the top two in the industry. Microsoft said revenue from Azure and other cloud services grew 40% during the second quarter.

Alphabet said its full-time headcount rose 21% to 174,014 from 144,056 the year before. But Alphabet said last month it would slow the pace of hiring and investment through 2023, with Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai telling employees in a memo that “we cannot escape the impact of economic headwinds.” The company expects those challenges to continue through the end of 2022.

Alphabet did not provide future revenue forecasts due to "increasing uncertainty in the global economic environment," and Alphabet's market value has evaporated by a quarter. Analysts at Refinitiv expect Alphabet's revenue to grow 14% to $293.9 billion in 2022.

Editor ✎Estella/

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