On Thursday, Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) reported second-quarter earnings that were far ahead of the analysts’ consensus. Revenues also beat Wall Street estimates as the company put an end to the deceleration in its advertising revenue growth. See the full earnings story.
Here is a brief look at the topics that were discussed during the earnings conference call that happened immediately following the announcement on Thursday. If you prefer to read the entire transcript or listen to the earnings call audio, click here.
On investments…
Alphabet management said artificial intelligence is their key focus in terms of investment flow. This includes training engineers on AI techniques to enhance user experience across the board of services it offers.
Apart from this, investments are flowing into improving the cloud-based services, besides scaling up of content responsibility for YouTube. The company said it believes user interest is directly linked to monetization, and hence these investments will serve as a major revenue booster in the long-term.
On site revenue and YouTube…
Google said its site revenue (Search and YouTube) continues to be strong, thanks in part to the adoption of machine learning to drive user and advertiser experience.
Individually, YouTube was the second-largest contributor to revenue growth across Alphabet in the first and second quarters of 2019.
On cloud business…
CEO Sundar Pichai said the annual revenue run rate for Google Cloud crossed $8 billion in Q2 and was the third-largest revenue growth driver for the firm. The cloud unit – which includes Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and G Suite – continued its strong performance on the back of solid demand for its data analytics capabilities.
The company said GCP, which benefited from new pricing, is one of the fastest-growing business at Alphabet.
On advertising revenue growth trend…
The management did not pinpoint any specific reason as to what could have led to the deceleration in ad revenue growth over the past three quarters, and what could have helped reverse it in Q2.
The company just said these are part of the variability associated with the ongoing innovations, and that there is nothing to worry about as long as the momentum is maintained.
On tighter regulations and GDPR…
The management said it would continue to engage with the regulations in a constructive manner, but that should not take its focus away from product innovation.
It added that the overall impact of implementing GDPR last year in Europe is still playing out.
On the progress in payment services…
Alphabet said, like in any other service it offers, the prime focus in payment services is in improving user experience. The tech giant added that there is a lot of work left to be done to make it work better.
Listen to on-demand earnings calls and hear how management responds to analysts’ questions