Net income for the period stood at US$4.9bn, up from US$3.9bn previous year, as well as a 17% rise in first-quarter revenues.
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Google’s success capturing advertisers and users as they shift to mobile devices from traditional personal computers is helped by its Android smartphone software, which gives its search engine and other services top billing on more than a billion devices.
As part of the report, Google said its ad business is growing: The company reported that while cost-per-click is down 7% over the a year ago, the number of paid clicks has grown 29%.
But its “Other Bets” segment, which includes operations such as the Nest smart home unit and Google Fiber Internet service, continues to underperform, yielding another operating loss.
Alphabet announced that growth continued as businesses purchased more ads on the search engine as well as other products, while its users clicked on the ads increasingly more.
This shows that Google’s advertising business hasn’t stagnated – as believed by analysts – but is still on a growth trajectory.
“We continue to invest responsibly in support of our many compelling opportunities”, Porat said in a statement.
Business is booming at Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., even as it loses billions of dollars on kooky-sounding projects that may never produce any revenue.
The sharp revenue growth suggests that Google is successfully navigating the high-stakes transition from desktop to mobile advertising, said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners.
Mountain View, Ca.-based Alphabet said it earned an operating profit of $5.86 billion, or $8.42 per share versus $4.83 billion or $6.99 in the year ago quarter, easily topping the consensus estimate of analysts for $8.04 per share. The reason for this happening has been attributed to Google pushing its vast advertising business towards “mobile” platforms, which was a challenge many in the industry thought the company would face.
However, to further bolster its advertising efforts – the key source of revenue for the company – its is now introducing machine learning in the mix through products like its own bots and voice-controlled Assistant.
“The strength of the quarter is about mobile”, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said Thursday.
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Porat was brought in from Morgan Stanley after Google missed a string of earnings expectations in 2015 and shareholders criticized the company’s undisciplined spending. However, this was partially offset by a 7% decline in cost-per-click.
