YouTube’s ad revenue reached $US9.2 billion ($AU13.93 billion) according to parent company Alphabet’s Q4 2023 earnings. However, the market remained unimpressed by the company’s efforts to boost its profits.
Market analysts predicted that YouTube Ads would hit $US9.2 billion ($AU13.95 billion) and its Search & other revenues hit $US48.02 billion ($AU$72.73 billion). Google ad revenues hit a whopping $US65.5 billion ($AU99 billion).
“We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud. Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation. As we enter the Gemini era, the best is yet to come,” said Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO.
However, while the company tightened losses on its “Other Bets” — including the Waymo autonomous car division and Verily life sciences unit that assists pharma companies test drugs — from $US1.2 billion ($AU1.82 billion) to $US863 million ($AU1.3 billion) the market reacted badly to the results overall with shares sliding some four per cent after the company released its numbers.
Much of the reason for the share’s sliding price came from costs associated with Google’s massive layoffs over the last 12 months and the closing of several offices around the world. Employee severance charges topped $US2.1 billion ($AU3.18 billion) over the last year and office closures cost the business $US1.8 billion ($2.73 billion) over the same period.
Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer; CFO said that Google was “committed to our
work to durably re-engineer our cost base as we invest to support our growth opportunities”.
