Highlights:
- Google continues to grow steadily amidst controversial reports.
- It displayed significant growth even in the department that was running losses.
Introduction:
Google is under attack from several places. The search engine company is receiving blows from lawyers and antitrust prosecutors. They allege that the company runs anticompetitive practices. Washington has condemned the company for its misinformation and child safety policies.
The company’s AI department is also facing challenges over high profile terminations and resignations. These resignations and terminations involve controversy over ethics and diversity issues.
Growth of the company:
All of this, yet the company shines and its business is flourishing. The first quarter, Alphabet made $55.31 billion in sales. Earning per share reached $26.29 that smashes expectations of $15.82 per share. Ad sales from Youtube brings in $6 million from $4 billion.
The cloud department of the company has displayed significant growth and recovered from loss. That division clocked in $4.04 billion in revenue which jumps from $2.77 billion.
Statement from Google CEO, Sundar Pichai:
“People have turned to Google search more than ever since the pandemic began,” Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday. “In some parts of the world, the economy began to rebound, which created a rising tide in the first quarter.”
Alphabet’s price per share displays a growth of over 5% in after-hours trading. Also, pandemic plays a significant growth behind the growth of the company. More people turned to tech while being at home. Users either turned to Youtube or Google search to look up a recipe or meal kits.
Statement from CFO Ruth Porat:
But it is uncertain to see if the company will have a similar growth rate when the world stands back up on its feet. CFO Ruth Porat says, “It’s premature to assess how durable these consumer behaviors are.”
Google’s earning analysis showed up when it showed constant presence at Capitol Hill hearing rooms. Tuesday, Alexandra Veitch joined Facebook and Twitter executives at a Senate subcommittee hearing. The hearing was about tech companies’ powerful yet unethical algorithms on their respective app stores. Alexandra is a Youtube government affairs director.
How antitrust policies attack Google:
Google faces serious challenges as far as antitrust policies are concerned. The company has been a target for three major anti-trust lawsuits. These include a landmark case by the US Department of Justice and a complaint by a bipartisan coalition of states.
Google is also handling chaos in its AI unit for the last few months. In December, a black woman called Timnit Gebru was terminated. The reason behind this was a research paper that reports risk for bias in AI systems. This includes the systems that Google search engine uses.