Google
has
spent
the
past
year
dealing
with
two
of
the
biggest
threats
in
its
25-year
history:
the
rise
of
generative
AI
and
the
growing
drumbeat
of
regulation.
AI,
in
particular,
has
shaken
the
company
to
its
core:
it’s
made
big
search
changes,
realigned
the
Search,
Android,
and
hardware
teams
around
AI,
and
launched
its
own
Gemini
AI
model
to
capitalize
on
the
opportunity.
Google
execs
cut
projects
and
laid
off
employees
to
refocus,
and
yesterday,
it
announced
its
first-ever
dividend
and
a
$70
billion
share
buyback
alongside
its
Q1
2024
earnings.
Investors,
at
least,
are
eating
it
up:
Google
parent
company
Alphabet
has
finally
officially
hit
and
maintained
a
$2
trillion
market
cap
for
a
whole
day
of
trading
after
briefly
touching
$2
trillion
in
November
2021.
Google
is
the
fourth
most
valuable
public
company
in
the
world,
behind
Nvidia
($2.2
trillion),
Apple
($2.6
trillion),
and
Microsoft
($3.0
trillion).
Amazon
is
currently
at
$1.8
trillion,
and
Meta
is
at
$1.1
trillion.
Alphabet
takes
a
leap
after
Google’s
Q1
2024
earnings.Graph:
Google
Unlike
Meta,
whose
stock
price
fell
10
percent
after
Mark
Zuckerberg
said
it
would
take
years
to
make
money
in
“massive”
bets
on
generative
AI,
Google
said
yesterday
that
it’s
already
finding
some
small
ways
to
sell
it
—
for
example,
it’s
helping
advertisers
target
people
with
AI
in
its
Performance
Max
tool
and
that
those
advertisers
are
“63
percent
more
likely
to
publish
a
campaign
with
good
or
excellent
ad
strength.”
The
company
also
says
Discover
Financial
is
rolling
out
AI
tools
to
nearly
10,000
call
center
agents
and
that
Ikea
is
seeing
an
increase
in
one
form
of
revenue
from
“value-based
bidding
solutions.”
And
while
it’s
not
yet
talking
about
monetizing
AI
answers
in
Google
Search,
CEO
Sundar
Pichai
said,
“...we
are
very
confident
we
can
manage
the
cost
of
how
to
serve
these
queries.”
For
now,
Google
says
it
doesn’t
want
to
disrupt
search
too
much:
“We’re
being
measured
in
how
we
do
this,
focusing
on
areas
where
Gen
AI
can
improve
the
search
experience
while
also
prioritizing
traffic
to
websites
and
merchants,”
said
Pichai.
Google’s
existing
businesses
seem
to
be
doing
just
fine,
too:
the
company
made
$23.7
billion
in
profit
on
$80.5
billion
in
revenue,
according
to
the
Q1
2024
earnings
report
it
released
yesterday.
Not
only
is
that
15
percent
more
revenue
year
over
year
—
it’s
14
percent
more
profit
than
it
made
during
the
holiday
quarter
when
search
and
ad
revenue
were
both
a
bit
higher.
And
while
Google
may
have
cut
a
thousand-plus
employees
to
help
boost
those
profits,
it
seems
layoffs
may
have
slowed
or
paused.
We
reported
last
quarter
that
Google
spent
$700
million
on
layoffs
in
January
alone,
and
yet,
the
new
Q1
report
shows
Google
only
spent
$716
million
on
“severance
and
related
charges”
across
January,
February,
and
March.
Q1
search
and
advertising
revenue
were
each
up
14
percent
year
over
year,
YouTube
ads
were
up
nearly
21
percent,
and
“subscriptions,
platforms,
and
devices”
were
up
18
percent
year
over
year
—
mostly
due
to
premium
YouTube
subscriptions,
said
Google
chief
business
officer
Philipp
Schindler
(so
not
necessarily
Pixel
8
sales).
Google
said
it’s
improving
its
ability
to
challenge
TikTok
and
Instagram
Reels,
too,
with
Schindler
talking
about
how
50
percent
more
creators
are
uploading
YouTube
Shorts
shortform
videos
and
how
the
monetization
rate
of
Shorts
has
increased
12
percent
over
the
last
quarter
alone.
Google
will
host
its
developer
conference,
Google
I/O,
on
May
14th.
Original author: Sean Hollister
Comments