Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recently released its first quarterly report for 2023, indicating a modest uptick in total revenue.
Within the report, the “Google Other” division, which encompasses sales of Google Pixel 7, 7 Pro, 6A, and Watch, experienced an 8.8% increase in revenue compared to the previous year.
The CEO of Google expressed satisfaction with the company’s Q1 performance, highlighting strong results in Search and increased momentum in the Cloud business. Additionally, the division achieved its first operating profit since its inception.
TikTok’s increasing popularity is impacting YouTube, yet the video-sharing platform’s ad revenue for the quarter reached $6.69 billion, exceeding analyst predictions of $6.64 billion.
Despite this, there were job layoffs in January, resulting in the elimination of 12,000 positions, or roughly 6% of the total workforce. Nonetheless, Alphabet reported an employee count of over 190,000, representing a 16% increase from the 163,000 figure at the end of January-March 2022.
During the investor call, Sundar Pichai declared that Alphabet will bolster its AI development while implementing safeguards.
Following the announcement, Alphabet’s shares surged by 3% in after-hours trading, bolstered by the positive quarterly results that exceeded expectations. Additionally, the company revealed plans for a $70 billion share buyback.
While Google’s AI chatbot Bard is yet to see the same success as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the company has announced several AI-powered features for its services including its productivity suite, emails, and more. Google is also working on a new search engine that focuses on AI features.
