For the second quarter of 2022, Google parent Alphabet reported a significant drop in quarterly profit to $16 billion. The reason for this is that sales in the digital business areas are no longer growing as strongly.
In the year-ago quarter, profits were $18.6 billion, while sales were up 13%, or $70 billion, year-on-year.
The most important business segment for google continues to be online advertising, where quarterly revenue grew by US$56 billion or almost 12% year-on-year. The YouTube division grew by just under 5% to just over US$7 billion.
Things are not going so well in the google cloud division. Competitors Amazon (aws) and Microsoft (azure) are well ahead in both size and growth. Google continues to post losses here, with a good US$850 million in the current quarter.
Alphabet Group robo-taxi provider waymo did not grow in the quarter, reporting an accumulated loss of $1.7 billion on revenue of $190 million.
The Group is dependent on strong growth in the face of rising costs and prevailing inflation. Chief financial officer Ruth Porat points to the ongoing crisis situation surrounding Corona and the Ukraine war, which is likely tempting google customers to spend more frugally.
