Google misses earnings expectations, remains buoyant

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reported earnings per share of $1.21 versus $1.28 expected and revenue of $69.69bn versus $69.90 expected.

The earnings miss was seemingly better than anticipated after a sell off of digital advertising companies last week caused by Snapchat and Twitter’s poor financial performances—Alphabet’s stock rose over 4% in pre-market trading.

Advertising revenue for Google slowed to 12% growth ($56.3bn), with notably lagged 5% growth for YouTube.

In response to stiff competition from TikTok, YouTube has began monetizing YouTube Shorts, it’s short-form video content, which SVP and chief business officer Philipp Schindler called “encouraging” in the company’s earnings call.

CFO Ruth Porat attributed the quarter-on-quarter deceleration in YouTube and network advertising revenues to pullbacks in adspend.