Graphic shows Alphabet’s fourth quarter results for 2020.
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BUSINESS

Alphabet Q4 2020 advertising surge

By Duncan Mil

February 3, 2021 - Google parent Alphabet reported that its quarterly profit rocketed over 40 per cent to $15.2 billion at the end of 2020, buoyed by heavy digital advertising spending during the holiday shopping quarter.

Fourth-quarter results showed $22.30 in per-share earnings on total revenue of $56.9 billion, marking 45.3 per cent and 23.5 per cent growth, respectively.

“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,” said Google and Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat in the company’s earnings report.

Google Services revenue, which makes up most of Alphabet’s revenue, grew 22.4% to $52.87 billion during Q4. Services included digital advertising revenue of $46.2 billion. YouTube contributed $6.89 billion to Google Services ad revenue stream.

Google Cloud revenue rose 46.6% to $3.83 billion, and Alphabet’s “Other Bets” revenue ticked up 14 per cent to $192 million. Google Cloud operating losses increased to $1.24 billion, while Other Bets losses stood at $1.14 billion. Analysts keenly awaited this new metric -- this was the first time Google has broken out Cloud into its reporting segment -- and some were expecting an operating profit.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 03/02/2021; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Associated Press
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