Alphabet reports $10.7 bn 2019 net income on revenues of $46.1 bn
04 Feb 2020
Alphabet Inc, the holding company of Google, has reported net income of $10.7 billion for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2019 against a net income of $8.9 billion in the previous year.
The company’s revenue also grew from $39.3 billion in 2018 to $46.1 billion in 2019. The figures, when compared to expectations, were mixed.
For Mountain View, California-based Alphabet, 2019 fiscal year earning numbers show a slowdown in revenue growth despite an 18 per cent jump in total revenues on an ear-on-year basis.
Revenue growth in the October-December period on the other hand was the lowest in the past 4 years.
While total revenues grew to $162 billion, revenues from Google’s “other” product category, which includes hardware, Play Store and non-advertising YouTube profits were also unimpressive at $5 billion. The “other bets” projects, which include Waymo, Verily and Google Fiber, continued to operate at a loss - they bled over $2 billion in 2019.
“Our investments in deep computer science, including artificial intelligence, ambient computing and cloud computing, provide a strong base for continued growth and new opportunities across Alphabet,” said Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet and Google. “I’m really pleased with our continued progress in Search and in building two of our newer growth areas — YouTube, already at $15 billion in annual ad revenue, and Cloud, which is now on a $10 billion revenue run rate."
“In 2019 we again delivered strong revenue growth, with revenues of $162 billion, up 18 per cent year over year and up 20 per cent on a constant currency basis,” said Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google.
“To provide further insight into our business and the opportunities ahead, we’re now disclosing our revenue on a more granular basis, including for Search, YouTube ads and Cloud,” she added.
Google Cloud was another underperformer as despite growing by 53 per cent on a quarterly basis, it lagged behind competitors like Microsoft Azure.
Google Search, on the other hand, is growing at a solid pace and racked in an impressive $98 billion in 2019, up from $85 billion the year before.
Google’s advertising business is growing at a steady 15 per cent rate as it brought $38 billion in Q4 alone and $135 billion for the full 2019.
Our investments in deep computer science, including artificial intelligence, ambient computing and cloud computing, provide a strong base for continued growth and new opportunities across Alphabet.