Google parent Alphabet’s profit fell for the second straight quarter-even as it brought in more money. Alphabet said in its Q2 2022 earnings report that the company brought in about $16 billion in profit in Q2 2022, down from $18.5 billion a year earlier.
As with the previous quarter, it appears that the rise in expenses played a role. The company actually brought in more revenue than it did in the second quarter of 2021. For the quarter, its revenue was almost $69.7 billion, up from $61.9 billion last year. Yet compared to this time in 2021, Google spent about $3 billion more on both research and development and sales and marketing.
As for how Google made money, the breakdown was similar to last year. “Google search and other” advertising remains Google’s primary source of experience and brought in nearly $40.7 billion in revenue, Google’s cloud computing business made about $6.2 billion in revenue, and YouTube advertising brought in about $7.3 billion in revenue for the company. While this is a substantial number, it is the slowest growth for Google’s video platform in more than two years. Compared to Q2 2021, Google’s revenue is growing in almost all segments.
In the past month, Google has warned employees that times may be getting tougher, and in early July, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent a memo warning that the company was “not immune to economic headwinds” and said the company would “need to be more entrepreneurial and thus take on a bigger role. be more entrepreneurial and thus work with a greater sense of urgency, sharper focus and greater hunger than we exhibit on sunny days. Just over a week later, the company reportedly told employees that it would suspend hiring for two weeks, saying it would use the time to review employee numbers.
The earnings report helps provide some context for these moves – Google has 144,056 employees at the end of Q2 2021. That number has ballooned to 174,014 by Q2 2022.
