Alphabet misses earnings as YouTube ad revenue slides

In brief

Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, saw its revenue growth slow to 6% in Q3 2022, a far cry from the 41% growth it achieved a year earlier and below analyst expectations ($69.09bn compared to an expected $70.58bn).

Declining growth was in part enabled by a 2% drop in ad revenue for YouTube ($7.07bn compared to $7.21bn in Q3 2021). It is the first time YouTube’s ad revenue shrank since Alphabet started reporting its earnings separately in 2019.

The missed earnings may be a bellwether for the digital ad market, which the IAB UK has warned won’t be immune from spending cuts.