While Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has performed well in 2021, it is starting the year with rather disappointing first-quarter financial results. Indeed, growth is slowing compared to the previous year, especially for the YouTube video platform. According to the Financial Times, Alphabet’s profits fell by $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Its shares fell more than 5% after hours. bureau while the group announced a 23% increase in revenue to $68 billion (slightly below the $68.1 billion guidance). In fact, Alphabet saw a 34% increase in revenue a year ago. According to Sundar Pichai, cloud and Google search results were high. “We will continue to invest in quality products and services and create opportunities for our partners and local communities around the world,” said the CEO of Alphabet and Google. YouTube, on the other hand, is “experiencing little resistance to revenue growth,” according to Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer. The platform’s quarterly revenue was $6.9 billion, while analysts had expected revenue of $7.5 billion. Google welcomes the fact that even though people are getting back to normal, they are still spending more time on YouTube, which now has over 2 billion monthly active users. However, compared to other Google businesses, the video platform has suffered more from the war in Ukraine. Google has suspended its operations in Russia, and advertisers have reportedly suspended their ads.
Shorts, Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a
Google had a lot of good news to announce. First of all, TikTok competitor launched by YouTube called Shorts is experiencing very strong growth. Short film views are reported to have quadrupled last year, and the feature now has 30 billion views per day. While competition with TikTok is fierce, Shorts lets YouTube hold back son audiences by offering similar features. But for now, YouTube is still looking for the right business model to monetize this new platform. Meanwhile, Mountain View decided to release son a checkbook to compensate top YouTube Shorts creators. In terms of hardware, Google is talking about the great success of its Pixel 6 series. “Pixel 6 is a huge step forward for the Pixel wallet. And it was great to see the reaction of Pixel users. This is the best selling Pixel of all time. And we develop a wide brand awareness among consumers and achieve good results. I’m excited about the products we’ll be releasing and can’t wait to talk more about Google I/O,” Sundar Pichai said, according to 9to5Google. We remind you that the Google I/O 2022 conference is scheduled for May 11 and 12. And Sundar Pichai’s announcement suggests that Google may showcase the Pixel 6a at the event. Pixel 6a will become version the affordable Pixel 6. But the mid-range model is rumored to use the same Google Tensor chip (and thus have the same performance) as the Pixel 6.
