Alphabet, the parent company of Google, suffers from inflation and the contraction of the dollar. Among the most relevant verticals is YouTube, which achieved earnings of 7,340 million dollars in advertising, a relevant drop compared to 2021, while Google Cloud achieved 6,280 million dollars.
However, revenue growth slowed to 13% in the quarter, an outstanding figure since in the 2021 quarter the company had achieved 62% growth, when the company had had more revenue, thanks to the pandemic. .
In addition, the company pointed out that the currency fluctuation of the dollar reduced 3.7 percentage points of revenue growth, said the financial director Ruth Porat. In addition, Alphabet said that this factor will affect them in the following quarters.
Advertising revenue rose just 12% to $563 billion as marketers reeled in their spending to rein in inflationary pressures.
The most notable slowdown was in the YouTube division, where sales rose 5% after jumping 84% in the same period a year ago.
In addition to the general pullback in ad spend, YouTube is also facing increased competition from TikTok in short-form videos.
Revenue in Alphabet’s other bets segment, which includes self-driving car unit Waymo as well as some health technology projects, rose $1 million from a year earlier.
Google Cloud also lost $858 million during the quarter, while Microsoft said on Tuesday that revenue from Azure and other cloud services grew 40% in the period.
Alphabet said its headcount rose 21% to 174,014 full-time employees from 144,056 a year earlier.
However, the company said last month it will slow hiring and investments until 2023, with CEO Sundar Pichai telling employees in a memo: “We are not immune to economic headwinds.”