Google parent company Alphabet suffers first revenue drop due to Covid-19

Image source: Wired

Google parent company Alphabet reported the first revenue decline in its history.

According to the company, total revenue for the last quarter was $38.3 billion which is a 2% drop from the same period in 2019. Net income declined from $9.9 billion in 2019 to $6.9 billion while revenue for search came in at $21.3 billion, a drop of more than $2 billion compared to the same period last year.

There was positive growth in other business units such as YouTube and the Cloud division. Advertising revenue on YouTube increased from $3.6 billion to $3.81 billion and the Cloud division saw a rise in revenue of almost $1 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai shared that the company saw "good traction" in YouTube and Google Play subscriptions as app and game downloads increased 35%.

While the company continues to "navigate through a difficult global environment" caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Pichai said there were "early signs of stabilisation as users returned to commercial activity online".

Source: The Verge