Google riding on hot steam, as earnings growth surges by 23%

Shares of Google‘s parent company, Alphabet, gained more than 7% during after-hours trading, after the world’s biggest online company reported 23% revenue growth and topped estimates for earnings.

Alphabet brought in $46.43 billion in revenue for the quarter when deducting traffic acquisition costs, up from $37.57 billion a year ago. Overall, the technology giant surged by 23% year-on-year.

This was also the first time the leading tech brand revealed results on its Cloud segment, revealing that the company earned about $3.83 billion in revenue and had an operating loss of $1.24 billion in Q4.

READ: Africa’s internet economy has the potential to reach 5.2% of the continent’s GDP by 2025 – Goggle/IFC

For the year, Cloud segments brought in $13.06 billion in revenue and reported an operating loss of $5.6 billion.

Ruth Porat, CFO of Google and Alphabet, said: “Our strong fourth-quarter performance, with revenues of $56.9 billion, was driven by Search and YouTube, as consumer and business activity recovered from earlier in the year.
Google Cloud revenues were $13.1 billion for 2020, with significant ongoing momentum, and we remain focused on delivering value across the growth opportunities we see.”

READ: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp user base top 3.3 billion, Q4 revenue of $28 billion

Highlights of Alphabet’s latest earning results include:

• Earnings: $22.30 per share, adjusted, vs., $15.90 per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• Revenue: $56.90 billion, vs. $53.13 billion as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.
• Google Cloud: $3.83 billion, vs. $3.81 billion as expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount.
• YouTube ads: $6.89 billion, vs. $6.11 billion as expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount.
• Traffic acquisition costs (TAC): $10.47 billion, vs. $9.32 billion as expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount.

READ: Google’s advertising revenue plunges

On its latest earnings results, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said, “Our strong results this quarter reflect the helpfulness of our products and services to people and businesses, as well as the accelerating transition to online services and the cloud.

“Google succeeds when we help our customers and partners succeed, and we see significant opportunities to forge meaningful partnerships as businesses increasingly look to a digital future.”