Google-owner Alphabet weathers the brand safety storm with 21% revenue rise to top $26bn
Despite speculation to the contrary, this year’s brand safety uproar appears to have had little material impact on Google's bottom line. Google's parent company Alphabet today (July 24) reporting a 21% annual rise in revenues which hit $26bn during the three months to June 30.
Advertisers had suspended buying media on Google-owned YouTube after their ads appeared against inappropriate content in 2017
The numbers appear even more impressive, when the online behemoth's recently released numbers also contain details of the impact of the recently imposed €2.4bn antitrust fine imposed by the European Union (EU).
The financial results also go on to reveal that “Google properties revenues”, which includes revenues from its video-sharing site YouTube, which had been at the center of the earlier 2017 brand safety investigation, came in at $18.4bn during the period, this is compared to $15.4bn 12 months earlier (see below).
However, the results were not universally positive news for the world's largest company when it comes to media spend; the owner of the world's most-used search engine, and video-sharing service also revealed the continued historic decrease in its cost-per-click (see below) was also accompanied by traffic acquisition costs rising 11% during the period.
The financial statement was also accompanied by a statement by Ruth Porat, Alphabet's chief financial officer, which read: "With revenues of $26bn, up 21% versus the second quarter of 2016 and 23% on a constant currency basis, we're delivering strong growth with great underlying momentum, while continuing to make focused investments in new revenue streams."
Alphabet's leadership team are poised to host a conference call to discuss the period with financial analysts later today