Alphabet Reports Weaker-than-Expected Earnings for the First Quarter

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Alphabet Reports Weaker-than-Expected Earnings for the First Quarter
29 Apr 2022
min read

News Synopsis

Alphabet reported weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter. The stock slid about 3% in extended trading. Google's revenue was $68.01 billion, up 23% from the same period last year. This is a slowdown from the 34% growth seen in the first quarter of 2021 when the economy resumed after the pandemic.

YouTube advertising revenue for the quarter was lower than analysts expected. The video site has benefited especially from the pandemic when users are mostly using the device. Failures also occur as TikTok gains a growing share of the social media video market.

CEO Sundar Pichai said on the call that YouTube's TikTok rival Shorts had 30 billion views per day, twice the previous quarter and four times the previous year.

Google's cloud business stood out this quarter, growing 44% and surpassing estimates as more large companies shift their workloads from their data centers. However, the cloud division is still losing money, reporting an operating loss of $913 million, compared to $974 million the year ago.

During the quarter, Google shut down much of its business in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. Revenue growth in Europe, including the Middle East and Africa, slowed from 33% in the previous year to 19% in the first quarter.

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