Google parent Alphabet’s big bets in mobile and video pay off in Q4

1 Feb 2016

Mobile, video and programmatic are bets that are paying off for Google parent Alphabet

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc has reported Q4 revenues of $21.3bn, well ahead of analyst expectations of $20bn, driven by solid gains in mobile ads as well as programmatic and YouTube advertising.

This was an 18pc increase year-on-year for Alphabet.

The strong performance yielded a net income of $4.9bn for the company.

Alphabet now has a market cap of $558bn – making it the most valuable public company in the world – ahead of that of Apple with a market cap of $535bn.

For the full year, Alphabet subsidiary Google, headed by Sundar Pichai, delivered revenues of $74.5bn, up from $65.6bn a year earlier.

‘Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising’
– RUTH PORAT. ALPHABET

This yielded an operating income of $23bn from the Google operations for the full year 2015.

For the fourth quarter, ‘Other Bets’, which includes areas like self-driving cars, internet balloons and more, posted sales of $448m, resulting in an operating loss of $3.5bn.

“Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising, all areas in which we’ve been investing for many years,” said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet.

“We’re excited about the opportunities we have across Google and Other Bets to use technology to improve the lives of billions of people,” Porat added.

Alphabet image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com