Alphabet, the company that owns the internet giant Google, has published its financial results for the first quarter of 2019. According to the report, its revenue for the specified period was $36.3 billion, an increase of 17% compared to the first quarter of last year. However, the growth rate of revenue has noticeably slowed down, as the increase in 2018 compared to 2017 was much more significant, at 26%.
As noted by Alphabet's CFO Ruth Porat, the main "drivers" of the corporation's revenue growth were mobile search, the YouTube video platform, and the Cloud service. Meanwhile, the company's workforce has exceeded 100,000 employees, whereas a year earlier this figure barely surpassed 85,000.
However, not everything in the report is so rosy. In the 'operating profit' column for the first quarter of 2019, the amount indicated is $6.6 billion, whereas a year ago the corporation earned $7.6 billion. An even greater difference is observed in net profit, which fell from $9.4 billion to $6.65 billion. Immediately after the announcement of these results, Alphabet's holding shares fell by 7%. It is clear that the situation was worsened by a €1.49 billion fine imposed on Google. According to a decision made by the European Commission in late March, this amount will be paid by the internet giant for abusing its dominant position in the online advertising market.
Google's performance in manufacturing devices under its own brand was also far from ideal. Although the company did not disclose its 'hardware' business financials separately, CFO Ruth Porat admitted that sales of Pixel smartphones had declined due to the flagship smartphone market. She did not specify what exactly this influence involved, but it likely referred to several negative factors, including competition from Samsung and Apple and the trend of increasing prices for premium devices, which currently hover around $1,000, forcing consumers to delay the purchase of new devices. The release of more affordable models may help rectify the situation. , which is expected to be announced in May during the Google I/O conference. At that time, a new version of the Android operating system — Android Q — will also be unveiled.
Source: 3dnews.ru
